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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
 by Ezreq Blodvaerd on 11/11/10 6:23
| Quote: | What is a Veteran?
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.
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.
Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".
"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 |
I personally want to thank all of our veterans, who grace our gaming community, that is the "Lucky 7th" Fleet.
Not until this very moment did I think that the "Lucky" in our fleet name stands for the fact that we have so many veterans in our ranks.
"THANK YOU"
_________________ 
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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
by krodri73 on 11/11/10 11:35
That was amazing sir.
19D10D3 Forward Deployed Army Cavalry Scout
JTF 6 - Oct 1995
Operation Joint Endeavor Dec 12 1995 - Nov 1 1996
_________________ Vice Admiral Dem Vrox - TF 88
Executive Officer
CO - U.S.S. GAGARIN Intrepid Class Retrofit (Main Ship)
LCDR Shi'Rah
Tactical Officer
CO - U.S.S. AVENGER - Miranda Class Assault Cruiser (Alt)
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VADM pRettTactical - Vice Admiral
Awarded:
Joined: 14 Jan 2010
Posts: 1866
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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
by VADM pRett on 11/11/10 12:01
Operation Desert Shield Aug to Oct 90
Operation Desert Storm Jun to Sep 91
Operation Provide Comfort Sep to Dec 93
Operation Deny Flight Mar 96
Operation Iraqi Freedom/Enduring Freedom/JTF Horn of Africa May to Sep 07
Various Temporary Duty Assignments as well. A salute to my fellow veterans, and just as importantly, the families that have supported them.
_________________ 
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Lang SEngineering - Vice Admiral
Joined: 22 Sep 2009
Posts: 650
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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
by Lang S on 11/11/10 13:30
Combat Firefighter Iraq 07-08
FOB's D-7,D-11,F-1/2,B-1,B-7
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Solrac YatugEngineering - Vice Admiral
Joined: 25 Apr 2009
Posts: 261
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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
by Solrac Yatug on 11/12/10 21:37
I've seen and heard this many times, but it is just as true the first or the 1,000th...Thanks to all of our Fleet members who have served!
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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
by Admiral Van Wormer on 11/13/10 18:54
To each and every one of you who have stepped up and taken on the burden of service - THANK YOU!
Don Van Wormer
PRC (AW) USN (Ret)
Aug75-Aug97
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KtrelanTactical - Captain
Awarded:
Joined: 17 Oct 2010
Posts: 46
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re: Veteran's Day Rememberance
by Ktrelan on 11/13/10 22:35
I've actually never read that, well written and thank you for sharing.
1980-2001 (Ret)
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K'Trelan, Capt, 7th Fleet/88th BN
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