drswift Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 ... and if you know any WWII vets, be sure to give them a special thanks tomorrow. Link to comment
Joel Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Amen. To all those who have answered the call to serve, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and to their families' for their support and sacrifices, I offer my thanks and deep appreciation. Link to comment
beemerman2k Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 I listened to the service for the Fort Hood casualties while I was at work today. I lost it during the roll call. That brought it all home to me. These are people who could otherwise be riding their BMW motorcycles and hanging out on this site for all we know, instead they're in uniform and fighting for our country. I salute them all! Link to comment
Matts_12GS Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 ... and if you know any WWII vets, be sure to give them a special thanks tomorrow. About 10 days ago I'm in the grocery store and I see an older guy riding one of the motorized scooter/carts in the store. older guy, but still quite fit looking. He was wearing a ball cap that read: USMC Veteran: WWII Korea Viet Nam I stepped in front of him, extended my hand and thanked him for his service until I was old enough to serve. He looked a little surprised, asked me about my service and then STOOD UP to thank me for mine. It was pretty damn cool! Happy Veterans Day to my brothers and sisters in arms Link to comment
EffBee Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 The greatness of this country, its freedoms, its opportunities, and its place in history are all in debt to those who have served and sacrificed in its name. Thank you all for your service. Link to comment
Firefight911 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 The cost is huge, the rewards immeasurable. As a former Marine, I thank all our veterans for their service to this great nation. Let us remember, never forget, and always honor those who have, are, and will. News article on part of current story of injury, its healing, and its toll. Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 I've posted this here before, but it bears repeating. ================= 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 Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat – but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account red necks and gang members into Marines, 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 quartermaster 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 Nazi 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 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". "It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, 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 protester to burn the flag." Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC ========================= Link to comment
roydog007 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Thank you to all the veterans, our lives would really suck without you Link to comment
RedHot Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 THANK YOU TO ALL THE VETS! BOTH WAR TIME AND PEACE TIME! I'm soooo very grateful to have you on OUR side!! Link to comment
Jake Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt (Man in the Arena speech- 1910) Link to comment
ltljohn Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 You just never know what is going to happen. I think this fits in this thread. MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee Army reservist's military identification earned him some street cred Tuesday, when he says four men who mugged him at gunpoint returned his belongings and thanked him for his service after finding the ID. The 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student said he was walking home from work about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when he was pulled into an alley and told to lay face down and with a gun to his neck. Four men took his wallet, $16, keys, his cell phone and even a PowerBar wrapper from his pants pockets, he said. But the hostile tone quickly changed when one of the robbers, whom the reservist presumed was the leader, saw an Army ID in the wallet. The robber told the others to return the items and they put most of his belongings on the ground next to him, including the wrapper, the reservist said. "The guy continued to say throughout the situation that he respects what I do and at one point he actually thanked me and he actually apologized," said the reservist, who asked not to be identified Tuesday because the robbers still had his keys. The reservist said he asked the men, who all had hoods or hats covering their faces, if he could get up and they said he could before starting to walk away. "The leader of the group actually walked back, gave me a quick fist bump, which was very strange," he said. Link to comment
George Brown Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 The cost is huge, the rewards immeasurable. As a former Marine, I thank all our veterans for their service to this great nation. Let us remember, never forget, and always honor those who have, are, and will. +1 from another former Marine Link to comment
Huzband Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 My heartfelt thanks to our Vets. For a great inspiration, click this link. Then click on "In His Own Words". An 86 year old Vet of WWII that was the Grand Marshall of the parade in Jax today. Link to comment
yabadabapal Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Lets take better care of our vets. Richard Brooks, president of the Central Veterans Association, presented statistics from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, noting 23 percent of all homeless are veterans and 47 percent of them are Vietnam-era veterans. In 1998, he said, an estimated 56,000 Vietnam War era veterans and 18,500 Persian Gulf veterans were held in state and federal prisons with nearly 60 percent of veterans in state prison having driven while drunk in the past. In addition, 45 percent of veterans need help finding a job and 37 percent need help finding housing. Link to comment
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