Happy Veterans Day, Nov. 11 2013

[bigrun]

Many gave some and some gave all..


i've posted the following past five years...It's an editorial from the Richmond Times Dispatch....If you can keep a dry eye reading it, good luck....


What Is a Vet?



War makes strange giant creatures out of the little routine men who inhabit the Earth. --WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle.

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a 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 alloy 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 Nebraska farmer who worries every year that this time the bank really will foreclose.

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 39th 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 never has seen combat -- but who has saved countless lives by turning slouchy no-'counts into soldiers, and teaching them to watch each others' 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 anonymous hero in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the other anonymous heroes whose valor died 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 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. --This editorial first was published in 1995 and has appeared annually since 1999.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

It is the
VETERAN ,
not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.

It is
the VETERAN ,
not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is
the VETERAN ,
not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is
the VETERAN ,
not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to assemble.


It is
the VETERAN ,
not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.



It is
the VETERAN ,
not the politician,
Who has given us the right to vote.



It is
the
VETERAN
who serves
under the Flag,
----------------------------------------------------------

Veterans Day 2013 freebies: List of the free meals, events, discounts, more.
The list has grown over the years...quite a list of participating restaurants.

http://www.examiner.com/article/vete...discounts-more

[casp0555]

Thanks for posting Bigs...

I salute all veterans, past and present, living or passed on. Thank you for your service and sacrifices.

[dellinger63]

Thanks to all who served and kept us free. We owe you far more than you receive.

[randallscott35]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

Thanks to all who served and kept us free. We owe you far more than you receive.

[Danzig]

thanks, bigrun and everyone.

happy veterans day from a veteran, to my husband, my son, my active duty son on the ronald reagan, and to soldiers, sailors and airmen everywhere.


it's an especially poignant day for our remaining ww2 vets. at reunions, there are less and less who are there each time. a special thank you, with deep gratitude, to our greatest generation.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Danzig

it's an especially poignant day for our remaining ww2 vets. at reunions, there are less and less who are there each time. a special thank you, with deep gratitude, to our greatest generation.

This October, a regional NBC News affiliate caught up with 88-year-old Merwin Cowles who fought as a U.S. Marine during World War II. He had been privileged to see the World War II Memorial in May of this year - pre shenanigans. He may have expressed in words what many other vets have felt: “It’s an experience that I don’t really know how to explain. The tears roll down and your heart will start pumping a little bit to think ‘ok I’ve got buddies here. I don’t see ‘em, but I feel ‘em,’” explained Cowles.

Regarding the Administration’s closure of the memorials, Cowles said, “I think it’s the most dishonorable thing they ever could do for us. Without us veterans working like that there would be no America.”

Enough said. God Bless America’s Veterans.

Let us never forget! The same week Obama spent money closing the memorials to vets with barricades, he opened the National Mall to illegals.

[hi_im_god]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

Let us never forget! The same week Obama spent money closing the memorials to vets with barricades, he opened the National Mall to illegals.

and let us never forget to drag otherwise benign threads into the sewer.

take that obama supporters! and thank you vets for dell's opportunity to score points in his own private little war.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by hi_im_god

take that obama supporters! and thank you vets for dell's opportunity to score points in his own private little war.

Regarding the Administration’s closure of the memorials, Cowles said, “I think it’s the most dishonorable thing they ever could do for us. Without us veterans working like that there would be no America.”

I'll back Mr. Cowles on this one. And apologize for the President's priorities.

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Danzig

thanks, bigrun and everyone.

happy veterans day from a veteran, to my husband, my son, my active duty son on the ronald reagan, and to soldiers, sailors and airmen everywhere.


it's an especially poignant day for our remaining ww2 vets. at reunions, there are less and less who are there each time. a special thank you, with deep gratitude, to our greatest generation.

Family of vets dan, thank you all...Wife, oldest son and me were all USAF..Had 3 uncles in WWII, two in Pacific and one in Germany..thanks to all that have served..Having dinner at Applebees tonite with couple old vet friends..

From the article above, this one always tears me up.

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 39th Parallel.

[randallscott35]

Grandpa is 91 this year. Flew missions in the South Pacific.

Dad was drafted within 10 days of his cutoff date age of 25 for Vietnam. Lucky he made it or else the handle would suffer from the lack of me.

[mclem0822]

God Bless our Veterans! Thanks for protecting our Freedom which we enjoy! Happy Veterans Day!

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by randallscott35

Grandpa is 91 this year. Flew missions in the South Pacific.WOW

Dad was drafted within 10 days of his cutoff date age of 25 for Vietnam. Lucky he made it or else the handle would suffer from the lack of me.

[bigrun]

Saw this Band of Brothers on eve news...great work from Pink Floyd with these wounded warriors..


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162...d-of-brothers/

[Danzig]

http://news.msn.com/world/hundreds-a...f-wwii-veteran

[bigrun]

Just got this...

http://www.greatamericans.com/video/...r-Roy-Benavide