Thank You VETERANS!

I know it's only Friday and this is early but since I won't be around until late on Sunday I wanted to get this out to everyone.

Sunday is Veteran's Day - November 11th.

I want to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone who has ever served in our armed forces. You gave your time to protect me and my family and for that I am eternally grateful. You helped ensure our security here and at times you went to places far away to fight our enemies and ensure our freedom. It doesn't matter when you served or how you served. Just the fact that you were willing to take on that job is heroic in my eyes.

My dad served in the Navy during WWII and Korea. My Uncle Tom was in the marines at Normandy and wounded. My Uncle Ted, Uncle Bob, Uncle Dick, and Uncle Fran were in the service in various places and came home safely. My cousin Bill fought in Vietnam and also came home safely. A buddy of mine was in the Air Force. A friend's daughter and son-in-law were both in the Air Force and are currently serving in the reserves. They are both back at active duty now helping during this crisis.

Each one of these folks are just regular folks who gave their time to serve our country and therefore... us.

Thank you to them and thank you to YOU for helping to protect me. I appreciate it more than you could ever know.

Now... Do you know a Veteran? Have you said Thank You? Do it. Tell him or her how much you appreciate the fact that they served YOU and your family. Doesn't matter if it was peace time or during war. They were still there to protect us.

Happy Veteran's Day. God Bless you. And God Bless America!

Jan

Amen

Amen to that.

My dad served in Vietnam. God bless all men and women in uniform that they may protect our freedom.

My father also served in vietnam. if ever there were a group of people deserving a day of recognition its these people.

My Grandad was one of the last to get off of the beach at the retreat from Dunkirk. Then he went to North Africa and Palestine. He was in the Army for 32 years. My great uncle was in the Royal Air Force as a navigator. Another Uncle who wasn't enlisted lost a lot of his friends in the First World War. Sadly there aren't many veterans of that war left now. But that gives us all the more reason to never forget what they did for their country.
Wilfred Owen, one of the war poets from the First War wrote this poem. He was one of the many that never saw peace time again.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Bitter as the cud,
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
- Wilfred Owen

remember them

thank you to all who have fought and lived to tell about it...thank you to those who fought and did not return. and good luck to those who are fighting now...