This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ----__JNP_000_4bcc.175f.5fe4 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This article is very appropriate for Veterans Day on November 11th. Patsy 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 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 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 three anonymous heroes 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. Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU". Remember November 11th is Veterans Day Read the "The Greatest Generation" by Tom Brokaw to gain a sense of recent history and world changing significance of your father's generation which can be found no where else. ----__JNP_000_4bcc.175f.5fe4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 From: NAJ34@aol.com To: CMDuffe@aol.com Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 20:15:02 EST Subject: Fwd: Your Father Message-ID: <0.75c5d258.25523816@aol.com> X-Mailer: Windows AOL sub 41 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=part2_0.3d8f0906.25523816_boundary Full-Name: NAJ34 Return-path: NAJ34@aol.com This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. --part2_0.3d8f0906.25523816_boundary Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit this was sent to me by an old friend of my dad's - i thought you might like reading it, too. maybe the dar sis's would like a gander.. naj :) p.s. i'm going to be in edmond once every other week or so for a while - wanna do lunch or supper?? --part2_0.3d8f0906.25523816_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline From: Sabrejock@aol.com To: NAJ34@aol.com, mcplane@aristotle.net, mmcswain@aristotle.net Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 20:10:29 EST Subject: Your Father Message-ID: <0.157600b5.25523705@aol.com> X-Mailer: Windows AOL sub 41 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Full-Name: Sabrejock Return-path: Sabrejock@aol.com 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 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 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 three anonymous heroes 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. Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU". Remember November 11th is Veterans Day Read the "The Greatest Generation" by Tom Brokaw to gain a sense of recent history and world changing significance of your father's generation which can be found no where else, ,,,, C.Mc --part2_0.3d8f0906.25523816_boundary-- ----__JNP_000_4bcc.175f.5fe4--