I just received this tonight. I have sent my personal thanks to Betty Briggs for sending this on the Ohio-Valley List. >From: Betty Briggs <bettyb@flash.net> >To: OHIO-VALLEY-L@rootsweb.com >We, the genealogists, search through records, tramp through graveyards, >always seeking. We remember. This is in honor of some of those we >remember, both near and distant in time, especially my Ohio Valley >sailor. >If it angers you, please flame me personally. > >VETERANS DAY, 11 NOVEMBER 1998 > >Date: Monday, November 02, 1998 6:47 AM >Subject: Veterans: A reminder what this Nov 11th represents > >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? > >She - or 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. > >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 -or she- is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat > >but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account >people into Marines, and taught them to watch each other's backs. > >He -or she- is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons >and medals with a prosthetic hand. > >He -or she- 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 -or she-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 -or she- 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" > >"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 protestor to burn the flag." > >Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC > > > > >==== OHIO-VALLEY Mailing List ==== >OHIO VALLEY List Rules: No flames, on list roll calls, poems, jokes, ads, commercial or >other non genealogy posts. No virus warnings, hoax warnings or too good to be true >offers. If in doubt, send it to OHIO-VALLEY-L-request@rootsweb.com with RE: Listowner >in the subject line. A complete list of rules and explanations for them are found in >the welcome message you received when you joined. > > > Beverly Williams Gardner USGenWeb - MOGenWeb Project County Coordinator NODAWAY, ATCHISON, WORTH CO'S, MO http://www.rootsweb.com/~monodawa/nodaway.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~moatchis/atchison.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~moworth/worth.html HEDRICK FAMILY RESEARCHERS HOME PAGE http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/4056/ Personal Home Pages http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/4090/ http://members.wbs.net/homepages/m/u/t/muttleybelle.html http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/g/a/r/Beverly-J-Gardner/