Thanks for the thought ..... :-) >From: "Jean Dalrymple" <motherd@theriver.com> >Reply-To: KYNICHOL-L@rootsweb.com >To: KYNICHOL-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: [KYNICHOL] Veterans Day Nov 12, DON'T forget! >Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 09:27:40 -0700 > >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. > > James H. Leggett Sr. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com