Today is Veteran’s day and I am a veteran. More specifically a Marine Corps vet,a Vietnam vet, a disabled vet. I did two tours in Vietnam, was wounded and returned home to demonstrations and catcalls. I put Vietnam and the coming home experience in the back of my head, locked away. Now I am dealing with the subsequent PTSD. So it was my mental wounds rather than my shrapnel wounds that define my disabled status. Up on the flight deck(psych ward) of my local VA hospital there vets from every conflict we’ve had, from WW II to Iraq and Afghanistan. Different services,different wars, all brothers. If you’re not a combat vet, I can’t explain it other than saying its the tightest camaraderie I’ve ever known. So today people say “Thank you for your service” and in those few words there is often a very sincere emotion. I’m glad the American people can welcome home their veterans with honor. I can’t say the same for my country. We haven’t fought an honest war since WW II. We fought dirty wars,mostly against people who did us no harm. We went to war for the politicians and whatever selfish reasons they had to spend American life. Remains of valiant vets, whose bodies were pulverized by IED’s have been tossed in the trash dump by mortuary technicians at Dover Air Force Base. I’m sure,in today’s atmosphere of budgetcuts, it was the cheapest way out that won. No longer do our political leaders send their sons and daughters into the military. No longer do we have leaders who served in combat. George H.W. Bush was the last. His son’s claim to military fame was missing National Guard meetings and not getting into trouble because PaMFy was a big shot. Lots of Vietnam vets labeled Bill Clinton as a draft dodger. The military is no longer an honorable profession for our elites. Let’s spend the lives and blood ofthe poor. Its cheap, cost effective. Yet the military IS an honored profession. Honored by those who serve and those we have served.
I see that commitment,when I go to my local VA Medical Center (Salem,Virginia VAMC) Every employee I encounter is friendly,helpful,cheerful and respectful. Smiles abound. We vets identify ourselves with ball caps emblazoned with branch of service and our war. Us “Nam vets,once so young and handsome, now look like the old WW I vets we saw in our town 4th of July parades in 1957. Sometimes I think we should have a constitutional amendment stating that any candidate for President of the United States must have served at least two years active duty in a branch of the Armed Forces.
So today I’ll pause and say a prayer to honor those fallen heroes, who fell in places like Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, Bastogne,Normandy, the Chosin reservior, Pusan,the Mekong Delta, Khe San, Beirut, Khafji, Fallujah, Najaf, Tora Bora and Kandahar. I hope you will remember them,too.


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