• Home
  • About Mary
  • Wheat From Chaff: Best of the Eleventh

The Eleventh

Families, and Their Aftermath

Feeds:
Posts
Comments

The Veterans

November 11, 2008 by Mary

When I was a kid, my parents would often go to dances at “The Vets Club.”  That was the VFW club, of course, Veterans of Foreign Wars.  I was raised in the 1970’s, my parents products of the depression, their friends including many veterans of WWII. 

Dad was 4-F back in 1943, his high blood pressure preventing him, to his disgust, from serving his country.  His younger brother Harold went into the Army, and there was a bitter envy that followed, and my Dad never really got past it. 

My Uncle Ray served in Korea.  When he got back, he had nightmares.  My aunt told my mom that they went to the Black Hills in South Dakota once and the scenery reminded him so much of Korea that Ray never wanted to go back.

What I knew about veterans growing up was sketchy and vague.  I watched TV shows about Vietnam, but didn’t know many vets from that war.  As time went by, veterans became those old guys at the beginning of the parades in our hometown, the ones who ran insurance agencies and auto body shops, dressed a few times a year in their VFW finery, carrying the flags and glaring at us until we put our hands over our hearts, the sun beating down on their balding heads as we snapped our chewing gum and giggled restlessly, waiting for the rest of the parade to get rolling.

They were the old guys selling poppies at the back of the church and in the lobby of the grocery store, tiny paper flowers with white paper labels.  They were the men in white short-sleeved dress shirts and bolo ties at the VFW club, holding opaque plastic drink cups of beer or manhattans, listening to the band and dancing the two-step with their bouffanted wives.

Now it is years later, and I’m introduced to a whole new waves of veterans.  I had thought the word veteran would always be associated with old starchy men in parades or vets club dances, all of them with grey hair, taciturn and grandfatherly.

And now, because of the most recent wars, veterans are guys I went to high school with, men who served in the reserves and are now recruiting younger men to go to war.  They are boys I used to babysit, young children who tinkered with cars and listened to Nirvana, and who later joined the Army to get college money, watched the towers fall in New York, and were shipped to Iraq to fight an illusive enemy.

They are women who wear fatigues and leave behind babies and pre-schoolers, standing in formation and calling their families on satellite phones or using webcams to talk husbands through potty-training pointers.

your_royal_dudenessThey are my nephew Gabe, coming home from two tours in Iraq and forming a basement band, working on heating and air conditioning systems, and preparing to welcome his first child in a few weeks.  I grew up surrounded by veterans.  Now they are harder to spot.  They are young now, younger than me.  Some carry the flag in parades.  Others seem like kids to me, and it finally dawned on me that every veteran sacrifices for his or her country.  They sacrifice their youth, their freedom, their share of everyday normalcy, their peaceful dreams at night…all of it is sacrificed for our country.

Old men and young men, they all had different reasons to serve.  Whether out of ringing patriotism or pragmatism, whether for honor or duty or scholarship money or vengeance or pride or tradition, they all served at great cost to themselves.   Even those who may have privately questioned the reasons for going to war fought in it. 

We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude for their service, and the promise to never send them to fight a war that could have been avoided.  We owe them decent physical and mental health care.  We owe them dignity and respect, and awareness of their sacrifice.

I salute them all this Veterans Day.

Photobucket

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

12 Responses

  1. on November 11, 2008 at 7:27 am Jennifer

    Tears in my eyes – beautiful post.


  2. on November 11, 2008 at 7:45 am Mary Alice

    That was lovely.


  3. on November 11, 2008 at 7:46 am Mary G

    This is just excellent! Love it.
    “every veteran sacrifices for his or her country. They sacrifice their youth, their freedom, their share of everyday normalcy, their peaceful dreams at night…all of it is sacrificed for our country”. What a perfect way to say it. I love the fact that you are concentrating on the ones that come back; so often, it seems to be only the dead who are to be remembered.
    I tried to put some of this is a post I wrote about my father, but you’ve really hit it.


  4. on November 11, 2008 at 8:34 am Naomi

    We do owe them that … and the constant awareness and remembrance.

    I get tears in my eyes on a regular basis when I think of the “way of life” that I am accustomed to … because of someone else’s sacrifices … because of someone else’s scars.

    Thanks M.


  5. on November 11, 2008 at 9:04 am Elizabeth

    Thank you, Mary, for the eloquent reminder.


  6. on November 11, 2008 at 10:41 am mamatulip

    As do I.

    Lovely post.


  7. on November 11, 2008 at 12:51 pm flutter

    Me too.

    This was beautiful


  8. on November 11, 2008 at 5:17 pm Beth

    I join you in your salute
    Beth (One Minute Writer & C. Beth Blog)


  9. on November 11, 2008 at 11:19 pm joanski

    If you get a chance, watch the documentary “Alive Day” on HBO. You get to see 10 veterans of the war in Iraq, all of whom have suffered traumatic wounds–physical and mental. It’s a heart rending show.


  10. on November 12, 2008 at 4:29 am Stacie

    Wonderfully written post. What a beautiful tribute.


  11. on November 12, 2008 at 4:40 am hele

    Thank you. You have made me see a whole different angle on veterans.


  12. on November 14, 2008 at 3:01 am julochka

    i always thought the only vet i knew was my uncle…but that was because for years i thought it meant veterinarian.

    great post and a very nice tribute to the whole spectrum of those who serve today.



Comments are closed.

  • WORD

    "Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar." E.B. White
  • Recent Posts

    • EFFING CANCER
    • Accumulation
    • One Day It Will Disgust Her
    • Saint Nicholas Day and a Christmas Tree
    • Update
    • Friday Photo
    • Apologies
    • East to West and Back Again
    • Excuse Me, I Must Be Sleeping
    • It turned out to be a good day.
    • What Day Is It? Where Am I?
    • What Would I Do Without Them?
    • Quick Trip
    • Happy Thanksgiving, Even If You’re Not a Fan
    • Food, Food, Food
  • Blog Archive

  • Contact Me

    Drop me a line sometime! marymurtzblogger(at)gmail(dot)com
  • Holiday Special for Eleventh Readers!

    Through Christmas 2009, be sure to mention The Eleventh when you order hand-crafted jewelry from mc2works on etsy. You'll get a free hand-painted gift box, free shipping, and 10% of your purchase will be sent to the charity of my choice in January.

    Click HERE to visit the mc2works etsy store and let's help Mindy sell everything by Christmas!.

  • From the Balcony: Reader Comments

    Diane on EFFING CANCER
    hairnette on EFFING CANCER
    E. on EFFING CANCER
    Heather on EFFING CANCER
    ryterrytes on EFFING CANCER
  • Write On!

    Writer. With a Capital W.
  • Indie Ink: Composition, Not Competition

    button3
  • Stumble It!
  • Some Things Are Better Than Bacon

    gmbmbadge.jpg
    Five Star Friday
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
    Photobucket
  • Blog Stats

    • 63,735 Visitors
  • The Tip Jar

    "The Internet Bill / Rabbit's New Pants / Mama Needs Coffee/ Help a Sister Out" Jar

Blog at WordPress.com.

Theme: Mistylook by Sadish.