Today is Veteran’s Day, but it will be celebrated tomorrow.
My dad served in Korea and was a drill sergeant in Junction City, KS–Fort Riley, the home of the famous ‘Big Red One’. He never talked about the war, but my mom tells me that he suffered from ’shell shock’, which we call ‘post traumatic stress disorder’ today. Maybe that’s why he drank. I’ll never know, but I do know that my family has a long history with the military, dating back to at least the Civil War. My nephew expressed interest in joining the military and I told him that it would break my heart if he enlisted. Especially now.
While I respect and love our military men and women and wish to honor them, I feel that my family has done the best it could in the way of defending this nation. I’m going to adopt the same attitude as many of our nation’s leaders: let someone else’s kid do it.
I hope to help out my homeless vets tomorrow. I’m going to make some sandwiches and take them down to them. It’s the least I can do since our country abandoned them. You should hear some of the stories of these guys. All of them are Vietnam Vets. They got hooked on drugs during the war–some of it administered by the powers that be and some of it because they wanted to dull the pain of combat. When they were discharged, they had little in the way of support and slowly fell through the cracks.
Pray for them. Think about them and the men and women who are coming back broken and weary. We owe them our devotion–even if we don’t agree with the war,which I know I don’t.
Happy Veteran’s Day.
[…] You can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here […]
Pfunk, you are an amazing woman. I admire you for helping out the vets. And i don’t blame you for not wanting your nephew to enlist. I don’t think I would want mine to either given the situation the world is in. Call me selfish.
{{{HUGS}}}
aw, thanks kid…I am so against kids enlisting when they don’t understand that they won’t be doing all the great things the recruiters tell them.
They’ll be in harm’s way doing a job that is better left for those who have the stomach to kill.
It makes me nuts.
My family’s done enough.