To the Vets

My Uncle Bob -- Lt. Robert L. Hunt, Jr. -- and his P-51 Mustang, part of the 383rd Fighter Squadron, 364th Fighter Group, US Eighth Air Force, during WW II.

The USS Hornet, launching Col. Jimmy Doolittle's B-25 on the Toyko Raid, 1942.

Elements of the 5th and 7th Regiments, 1st Marine Division, during the breakout from Yudam-ni, Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korean War.

US armored units in Gulf War I during the liberation of Kuwait.

November 11, 2006. Veterans' Day.

Thank a veteran today. Doesn't matter the war or time of peace that he or she served in. Doesn't matter the branch of the service he or she served in.

It only matters that they served. On behalf of all of us. Even those of us who opposed wherever they went, for whatever cause they were sent forth.

We all owe thanks to a veteran this day, for so much of what we have the liberty to take for granted, and sadly shouldn't. It came at such a cost for so many others.

Many more veterans come home than don't; the many more who do come home, tend to insist that the real heroes are still "over there": Belleau Wood. Meuse-Argonne. In the USS Arizona Memorial. At the bottom of Sunda Strait. At Guadalcanal. At the bottom of Iron Bottom Sound. On New Guinea. Tarawa. Guam. Saipan. Pelielu. Iwo Jima. Luzon and Leyte. Okinawa. Kasserine Pass. Sicily. Salerno. Anzio. Omaha Beach. St. Lo. Eindhoven. Nijmegen. Hurtgen Forest. Bastogne. Osan. Taegu. Taejon. The Pusan Perimeter. Inchon. Chosin Reservoir. Chipyong-ni. Heartbreak Ridge. Porkchop Hill. Ia Drang Valley. Hamburger Hill. Hue. Beirut. Grenada. Panama. Kuwait. Bosnia. Afghanistan. Iraq.

It's not always easy to convince a humble, modest veteran that he/she is just as much a hero, and owed thanks for having done their duty.

Thank 'em, anyway.

Thank especially those who've seen the ugly, unremitting face of the monster of war, and have come home with not all their scars on the surface; they carry their wounds deep within. That they have faced the lowest form of human primal instinct, and come home to become useful and productive members of society, speaks volumes about the character and fortitude they took forth into the maelstrom.

Even the hideous, demeaning cretin of war could not strip them of their better qualities. These are heroes, indeed. The "Greatest Generation" is replete with them. So is each following generation of servicemen and women.

I've thanked a fair share of veterans as I know and meet them. I'll add my personal thanks here now, to one Iraq veteran who volunteered to serve in the wake of September 11, 2001; he'd fought and won his own personal war with a serious health issue, and wanted to serve his country in the wake of Islamofascist aggression. He served two combat tours in Iraq, seeing more than his up-close-and-personal share of the monster of war. He brought the scars of that encounter home, and was slow to reveal the pain of those scars; but thanks to his own inner strength, and a well-knit, loving family second to none, he'll not only survive the war; he'll survive the scars he had no choice in bringing home, and go on to a full, productive life.

Thanks, Joshua.