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Archiver > ILJERSEY > 1998-11 > 0910745023


From: "Tom Jett" <>
Subject: Re: [ILJERSEY-L] What is a Vet?
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 18:43:43 -0600


Thank you Ms. Kaylor for "What is a Vet". I've made a copy of this and will
take it to work with me tomorrow.
Tom Jett

-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Ann Kaylor <>
To: <>
Date: Tuesday, November 10, 1998 4:36 PM
Subject: [ILJERSEY-L] What is a Vet?

>HI,
>
>I read this on another List and thought it appropriate for Veteran's Day.
>
>Mary Ann Kaylor
>County coordinator, List Manager
>
>
>>> WHAT IS A VET?
>>> 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. What is a vet?
>>> 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 hill-billy rednecks and no -account 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 also was my father, your father, grandfather, husband, brother,
>>> uncle, cousin, and yes, all the females who bravely served and are
>>> serving their country, for OUR freedom .
>>> 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 or is serving
>>> 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".
>>> Remember: November 11th is Veterans Day
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>Jersey County,IL ILGenWeb
>
>
>==== ILJERSEY Mailing List ====
>Visit the Jersey County USGeweb Home page!
>http://www.rootsweb.com/~iljersey/index.htm

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