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Tech808
| | Posted on Monday, November 11, 2002 - 1:22 am: | 
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TO ALL FORUM MEMBERS WHO HAVE PROUDLY SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES.
HAPPY VETERANS DAY!
PLEASE DO NOT FORGET THE POW's AND MIA'S
WHEN ONE AMERICAN IS NOT WORTH THE EFFORT TO BE FOUND, WE AS AMERICANS HAVE LOST!
POW ~ MIA
SEMPER FI!
Lon
tech808
tech808@copperelectronics.com
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Topten
| | Posted on Monday, November 11, 2002 - 8:17 pm: |
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Thanks :-) |
Alsworld
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 10:35 am: |
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I wanted to post this yesterday but it was on my work computer. A day late but well intentioned. I do not know who authored this.
What is A Veteran?
Some veterans bear visible scars of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others 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; a hardness in the soul forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. So often you cannot tell a veteran just by looking. So, what is a veteran?
He is the Navy SEAL who swims through disease infested swamp and crawls over poisonous snakes under the cover of darkness to conduct intelligence on a foreign government hostile to our own and to our cherished way of life.
He is the Army Ranger who marches endless miles over rugged mountainous terrain for three days with no sleep or food and very little water to designate targets for laser guided bombs in Afghanistan.
He or she is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers did not run out of fuel during Operations Desert Shield and Storm.
He may even be that loudmouth in your neighborhood, dumber than a stack of boards, whose obnoxious behavior is outweighed a hundred times over in cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery on the sands of Kuwait and Iraq.
She, or he, is the nurse who fought against futility and fatigue, going to bed each night sobbing for two solid years in Da Nang, Viet Nam.
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 personally has never seen combat - but who has saved countless lives in combat by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines; teaching them it’s more important to watch each others back more than their own.
He is the carrier aviator landing on a rolling, pitching, heaving flight deck during a rainsquall in the pitch-black night of the Tonkin Gulf.
He is the parade riding legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is one of the anonymous heroes in The Tomb of the Unknown, whose presence at Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefields or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging your groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp, and who prays everyday that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He or she is an ordinary and yet extraordinary human being. The person who offered some of his or her most vital years in the service of country, and who sacrificed ambitions so that others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He or she is a Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, or Marine holding a sword against the darkness, and is nothing less that the finest and greatest testimony on behalf of the greatest nation ever known. A nation established on principles of the Holy Bible, though many may not acknowledge or accept that today.
Whether he or she has seen combat or not; whether his or her heroic deeds were highly visible or unseen; all are still heroes in their own right.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say, “Thank you”. That is all most people need. And in most cases, it will mean more than any medals they were awarded or could have been awarded. Two little words that mean a lot. “THANK YOU”
Remember Monday, November 11th is Veteran’s Day. It is so much more than a just another day off work.
Alsworld |
Tech808
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 11:20 am: |
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Alsworld,
Thank You!
Lon
tech808 |
bullet
| | Posted on Saturday, November 16, 2002 - 4:37 am: |
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alsworld,
thanks thats very very nice.
although these things are never on ones mind when your humping that 90lb ruck to the Ranger objective,instead focused on the mission. but its nice to think that someone else thats been in your shoes before or those with relatives that served our country recognize the sacrafice our service men and woman give without a thought of it at the time.
thank you everyone thats served
and thanks to all those that support our servise men as well. it maynot seem like much to you but those kind acts mean alot to a grunt. |
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