Remembering Veteran's Day

[David D.]

NOVEMBER 11TH

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.


Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me

.
Henry Lite, 1847th hour of the 11th th 1918 at 11AM the Great War ended.

This AM please take time to remember and pray for those, who throughout the 20th century, gave their lives unselfishly for their countrymen and their cause. Sometimes as we focus upon our corvettes, credit crises, and the stock markets we worry too much and we miss the point. Recognize that when their country called, unselfish men and women moved forward to serve and if necessary gave the ultimate gift that those left behind could move forward and build a better life. Surely this places all of the current travails in proper perspective. It does for me.....

Please spend some time today at 11 AM to reflect on these issues.

God Bless America,
David

[Joel F.]

Re: Remembering Veteran's Day

Thanks for posting that David. And to all fellow vets, thanks for your service. Semper Fidelis and Happy (belated) Birthday to any Marines.



Someone forwarded this to me in an email and I think it is a nice sentiment so I will paste it here.

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WHAT IS A VET? Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking. What is a vet?


He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel. He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.


He is the drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into warriors, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career logistician who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow who helped liberate a **** death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".



Remember November 11th is Veterans Day "It is the sailor, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the airman, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the Marine, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protestor to burn the flag."