Veterans Day

I'm ashamed to say that I've allowed too many Veterans Days to go by without appropriately contemplating their meaning. This year, while I didn't make any specific resolution to change that, my thoughts did take a turn in that direction. Perhaps one reason is that I've been reading a book about FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt in the run up to World War II and what it was like here on the "Home Front" during that war. The title is No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Another reason is that I recently hung up a picture of my father that I pass by several times a day. He's in US Navy uniform and he's standing on a Jeep parked on a dirt road with a field of sugar cane in the background. The road is in Hawaii near an installation called Schofield Barracks and the year is 1944--well after the tragedy at Pearl Harbor. He was running a metals business pumping out war materials until he couldn't stand not formally serving any longer and joined up. As an engineer for the Navy, he helped design the VT fuse for munitions.

I thought about the time I struck up a conversation with a fellow airline passenger who told me that her National Guardsman son was getting ready to start his third tour of duty in Iraq--and that he'd already been wounded once. He was hoping to get a few days' leave at home for the holidays.

I think about a friend in my mystery writers/fans group who volunteers her time to help our local veterans and who told me about a shelter in a nearby town for female veterans who have nowhere else to go.

Then there are the heartbreaking stories on TV lately of all the servicemembers who've lost limbs, sustained traumatic brain injuries, been psychologically scarred--and some who've made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. A new state law has been passed in the name of fallen soldier Lieutenant Colonel Todd Clark to present flags which have flown at half staff at the State Capitol to families that have lost a loved one serving in the military.

I think of my brother-in-law who was shot in the leg by a sniper in Vietnam and one of my old flying buddies who spent many unpleasant months patrolling those same jungles.

Even my recent reading of a favorite sci-fi book, David Weber's The Shadow of Saganami, starts out with an address by his character Honor Harrington to the graduating class of a futuristic naval academy. Or the scene from A Few Good Men where Jack Nicholson as Col. Nathan Jessup describes how crucial the Marines in Guantanamo Bay are to the defense of their country.

It surely can't be a coincidence that I've noticed all these vignettes of service this year. I have no explanation. It's nearly impossible for a citizen who's never been in the military to fully comprehend the extent of the sacrifices our veterans have made. But at least this year I've made a small effort to try.

To all our veterans, Happy Veterans Day and thank you for your service!