Have You Thanked a Veteran Lately?

It’s the third of July. Some communities in the area are having fireworks tonight; some will wait until tomorrow night. I’m sitting in my back yard in a lounge chair with the American flag flying outside. I sometimes forget to put out the flag on holidays. I feel bad about that, being a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Army with thirty-years of military service behind me. Usually I remember to do it only after seeing others flying their flags.

I recall the time in 2007 when I was the Chief of Medical Logistics at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. I was summoned to the third floor office of the Commander. She asked me if I would be willing to go to Washington D.C. for a few months on a special assignment. I told her that was nice of her to ask, but I’m of the old school where I don’t think that a superior officer should have to ask someone if they would take an assignment. After all, I said, my dad served in the Army as a Private First Class during the Battle of the Bulge in W. W II. If all you are asking me to do is to go to Washington, fine.

While in Washington I was having lunch in the dining hall at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Not far from my table was a young soldier in a wheelchair, with one leg missing. He was having lunch with his parents. I don’t know what they were thinking, but as a dad who had to bury his twenty-year old son, I could only imagine. I thought the parents must have been thinking, “At least we have our son back. Nothing else bad can happen to him. We can deal with the loss of a leg. For our son, the war is over.” Later, in the lobby of the medical center I noticed a young soldier walking across the lobby. My view of him was hindered by a sofa. When he appeared from behind the sofa I noticed that he had two prosthetic legs. In spite of his losses, he walked without any apparent difficulty. Later I saw a young man walking with only one prosthetic leg and a cane. His gait was a bit unsteady. I guess he was new here. In a few months, I thought, he will probably be running in a marathon.

Later I saw another young man racing by. He was in a wheelchair and it appeared to me that he lost both legs well above the knee. Perhaps he didn’t have enough of a stump to be fitted with prosthetics. This didn’t appear to slow him down as he raced through the lobby at ninety miles an hour. Today he is probably buzzing through his home town in a Mustang convertible, not letting any so-called handicap slow him down.

I’m reminded during this special day of what others have said about the service and sacrifice of those who have gone before us.

I don’t know who said this but a veteran is someone who, at one point in time in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to the United States of America, for the amount of “up to and including my life.”  Not everyone has been willing to write that check.

Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, was in France in the early 1960’s. President deGaulle of France said that he wanted ALL U.S. military out of France as soon as possible. Rusk responded, “Does that include those who are buried here?”

When in England, Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by President George W. Bush. Powell answered by saying, “Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indochina to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?” A Boeing engineer stood up and replied: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships: how many does France have?”

A U.S. Naval Admiral was attending a multi-national military conference when a French admiral complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, American learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?”


An American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”

I’m reminded of a man in the Book of Joshua by the name of Caleb. He was one of the two spies; the other was Joshua, who was willing to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. In Joshua 14:10-12 we find the Israelites being reminded that they had not yet finished the job of driving out their enemies. Caleb says, “Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

I am always thankful that there have always been Calebs in this country who were willing to put down their books and pick up a carbine; park their taxi and climb into a plane, or trade their ski boat for a battleship.

Whenever I see a military person in uniform, or a veteran with a ball cap indicating that they are a veteran, I always make a point to say, “Thanks for serving.” Have you thanked a soldier or veteran lately?