Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran’s Day

To my fellow veterans, their families, and especially those widowed or left behind let me take this moment to thank you for your service and sacrifice for our country.

Please allow me my Veteran’s Day soapbox.

Ronald Reagan said

That statement is as true today as when he said it. And if we as a generation fail to safeguard that freedom we not only curse our prodigy with slavery but we make of little worth the sacrifice of the generations that have preceded us.

I remember my first trip to Arlington cemetery. I was a child and my father wanted to show me a particular grave of some distant relative who died before I was born. I remember seeing the thousands of stones all in perfect lines and marveling at how pretty it was. We watched the color guard and their perfect uniforms and I wanted to grow up to be like them.

I remember my second trip. I was a teenager and now realized the loss that each stone represented. As I looked at the thousands of graves of men and women I would never know I understood at least in part what a great loss they represented. I wondered how anything, especially ideas like freedom that were hard to grasp and understand could be worth the sacrifice of so many. I felt the pain and loss of war and determined that nothing could ever be worth so great a price.

Then I remember my third trip. This time I wore a uniform and the row upon row of stones no longer represented faceless men and women I would never meet, but some were now men I had known and served with. Their sacrifice was no longer some abstract loss of previous generations but personal. While my grief was far greater I now understood the reason for their sacrifice and the requirement to safeguard the liberty they had given their lives for. As Lincoln said so eloquently at Gettysburg so long ago I know that this memorial to the dead was a call for the dedication of the living, of those of us who remained, to ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain and that our freedom did not perish from the earth.

My uniform now hangs in the closet, now several sizes to small. I thought my time of sacrifice was over. I have paid my price. I live with my demons. Let another go next time. I thought my installment was paid in full.

My son is 16. He came home from school last week with a pretty brochure from the Army recruiter. He has a “Go Army” bumper sticker on his car. Some of his older friends have already signed their pre enlistment paperwork.

Freedom is never free and has never been paid in full.
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