Thankyou for honoring those of us whom have served.

Roller dogs strike again

 

This forum really is not the proper place to discuss this, maybe the mods will place it in a better area. I too feel that in my lifetime holidays seem to have lost their meanings. I have come to hate how Christmas has encroached on Thanksgiving.

Although my disability is not service connected I am in the VA hospital a good bit and have been around the Vets coming from the various actions in the middle east. I mentioned in my first post the ones that brought their demons home. Just in the past several months many of these Vets nationwide have committed suicide and it's turning into a major problem for the VA along with homelessness.

Oh and one more thing, you don't have to wait for Memorial Day or Veterans Day to thank a Vet! I do it almost every day!

 

As sad as this observation really is, the word hero has lost a lot of its meaning because of overuse.

 

This ticks off a lot of people, but me and a lot Vets I know feel the same — I tell youngsters that if you want to honor our fallen — put the uniform on and serve, I don’t need your thanks, it was my honor. Only 4% put it on and go nowadays.

 

I would be careful with that (serve) comment! I have had this discussion with many Vets. During WW2 did the uniformed services do all the service? They did NOT! Many people right here at home making the weapons of war also served. What I tell Vets like you is stop looking at it as a thank you, think of it more as an acknowledgment you did serve.

I live in The Norfolk Virginia metro area, otherwise known as Hampton Roads. Outside of Hawaii and Washington, I don't think any other area has as many General and Flag Officers as we do. this is military town US. many businesses here offer military discounts some also extend that to Veterans.

As I wrote the above I was reminded of the many groups that are helping Vets. One group regularly stops by the VA here with therapy dogs. My point is there are different kinds of service. One of my mothers oldest sisters was a Rosie The Riveter! According to all, I can find out she actually put several of the Rivets in the B-29 now known as The Enola Gay. The Commander of that "mission" that helped end WW2 had a chance to meet her and the other people involved in building the B-29.

I served 75-80, did 5 years actually because I extended my enlistment a year. I did not go into actual combat, but I did serve. I was watching an actor talking about war and serving not long ago, this actor really, in my opinion, slandered every person that ever wore the uniform. I could only think afterward my gosh, this kind of thinking becomes widespread there goes our Republic!

My words were not designed to cause debate because I believe you have that right to hold that service opinion. I just hope you give (service) a little more thought!

 

That's what I told my oldest boy a few years back. He repeated a comment (and believed it) he heard at school from a teacher trashing combat vets (which I won't say what it was or what I did to the teacher) but I got very pissed off at him (one of the few times I lost my temper with him to the point he almost was thrown out of the house). I told him to make the choice, either he does his penance by helping at the VA for ten years or putting on the uniform, he did the latter.

 

Moose, you bring up a really important point.

Where I went to school, there was an older lady who was our school nurse. As kids we never thought much about the school nurse so we didn't know much about her. My younger sister got to be friends with her and inspired her to go into the medical field. Come to find out, the lady was in the Philippines when Japan attacked and she captured along with a number of civilian nurses. She was a contracted nurse working for the military. She told my sister a bunch of stories about what it was like living in those conditions, my sister kept a diary of them and I read some of those stories. One thing that sticks with me about this holiday is that we have ignored many of those who were in a war as civilians and many that died helping out or caring for our fallen. In the case of those civilian nurses, they were not treated well at all (sometimes worst than soldiers), some of them were raped others were shot helping out people and others were starved and beaten. We tend to believe the media and revised history what this is all about - just military but as you stated, there is more involved with a war than just the soldiers.

 

That’s my point — could care less what color the uniform is, just do something other than lay on their dead butt and expect something for nothing.