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AFGE LOCAL 3197 (afl-cio) |  |
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 a wooden plank, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times by his four years of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel in Korea.
She is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the retired high school math teacher who still wakes up in the middle of the night thinking of the 21 fellow Marine Vietnam KIAs he buried 35 years ago while assigned to casualty assistance duty.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back at all.
He is the Paris Island drill instructor who has never seen combat but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy no-account rednecks 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 but keeps the supply lines full.
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 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 wouldn't have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness.
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 say Thank You." That's all most people need and in most cases, it will mean more than any medals they were awarded. Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU." It's the Veteran, not the reporter, who gave us our freedom of the press. It's the Veteran, not the poet, who gave us our freedom of speech. It's the Veteran, not the campus organizer, who gave us our freedom to demonstrate. It's the Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and Marine who salutes the Flag and whose coffin will one day be draped by the Flag, who allows the protester to burn the Flag.
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