Veteran’s Day, 2021

I would just like to take a moment of everyone’s time today to thank our US Veterans for their service to protecting what we hold dear.

Thank you for reading this- USAF Retired Staff Sergeant 70% Disabled- Served in 98-06 in support for both Desert Storm (well after the fact obviously) and in support for Operations Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom

 

Good morning! Thank you for your service. I hope you are doing well.

 

Being as awesome as life will allow! And thank you for your support! It means so much to us and our families.

 

Thank you.

 

Thank you for your service!

And thank you to those who serve and continue to serve.

Fellow USAF E7 Retiree here...25 years active duty...Logistics Management.

Ed

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WHAT IS A VET?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain 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 ally 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 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 38th parallel.

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 POW who went away one person and came back another....or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico 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.

He is the anonymous hero in The Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the 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 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.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You.

That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Remember November 11th is Veterans Day

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC

 

Amazing time of service Ed! Thank you for your service too! Nice to know we have a few more on here!

 

Nicely posted!

 

Ets 29aug this year, both my sister and I served together, deployed together, it was cool. For those who never made it home , we can never forget them.
RIP my brother in arms, SSG. Jaden Hall , miss you man!



Army Spc. Juan Mendez Covarrubias
KIA 11MAR2020

Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts
KIA 11MAR2020
British Army medic Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon
( IRISH ROYAL GUARD)

KIA 11MAR2020



never forget the fallen.

 

So many of our friends and family never made it home but they will never leave our hearts and minds.

 

From one Veteran to all others Thank you for your Service !!


USMC 1981- 84

 

Be sure to post all of this on Memorial Day. That's the day set aside for those we lost.
(It works here too.)

 

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you for your service fellow vets.

USN 6 years. Did four years on a frigate deploying to do anti-piracy ops off the Somali coast.

 

Thank you for your service and every other US veteran as well! We (the standard citizens) thank you!

 

And we the Veteran thank you, the standard citizen, for your support and patriotism.

 

Did you see Tom Hanks while you were out there?! Lol

 

Unfortunately didn’t see Tom Hanks out there. My chief was on the destroyer that the Seals shot the pirates from when it happened. I heard about that long before the movie haha.

 

Thank you to all my fellow vets along with families who’ve supported us.

 

“Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.”

-My Grandfather fought & was wounded in WW1. Died of the gas-damaged lungs by 60.
-My Father fought, wounded, shot-down twice, and a PoW in WW2. Lived to 95. Was 1 of 2 in his crew of 12 to survive. Started in B-24s, retired in B-52s; then flew (shot at every day) in Laos w/ AAm during Vietnam.
-My Uncle fought & wounded WW2 Pacific. Lived to 90. U.S. Marine, 1st/7th, Guadalcanal - Okinawa. Was 1 of 7 in his platoon of 69 to survive.
-My Uncle fought in WW2 Europe. Live to 65. Hit the beach at Normandy 6Jun44, ended up in Berlin.
-My Brother fought & wounded (3x) in Vietnam. 173rd Abne. Still a fighter today.
-My Cousin fought & shot-down over Serbia, started as a cadet at USAFA, retired as Chief of Staff, USAF. Still a fighter today.
-My Sister a medic & wounded in Central America. Took three 7.62 rounds to her leg. Awarded the highest medal that Guatemala can give to a civilian and their "purple heart" equivalent. Still a fighter today, but with a hobble in her walk.

-Me, been there, done that, got scars... but those above ^^^^ and my comrades, my brothers & sisters in arms, they are the real heroes!

 

Thank you to all who serve, have served, and sacrificed their lives for our Freedom. May we never forget that our Freedom was not free, but a gift wrapped in the sacrifice of those who willingly answered the call. I am forever grateful to my dad who served in the Air Force during the Korean Conflict. My father in law and his brothers who served in the Air Force during WWII. To my uncles and great uncles who served in the Air Force in WWII and Viet Nam, and one in the Marines in Korea. For my nephew who served in the Marines in Iraq. And my son who currently serves in the Air Force. Finally thank you for your service and sacrifice. With Great Respect.