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It’s November, and time sit down to the Thanksgiving meal and raid the local Best Buy and Office Max on Black Friday. But before we relax with our families we must celebrate another important occasion. Both Veterans Day and the Birthday of the Marine Corps are observed this week on the 11th and 10th, respectively. Despite popular observance, it is not an occasion to be recognized only on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month; as it first was on a frozen day in 1918 in the Forests of Compiègne, France where World War I was formally ended with the signing of an armistice. It is an occasion to be recognized every time we find ourselves idle enough to notice the gentle thrum of peace, the gift of tranquility. It is the absence of chaos, of destruction, of oppression. This is a feeling universally recognized, though all-too-often drowned out by the clamor of warfare in many parts of the world.

Even if you, yourself, aren't a veteran or an active duty member of the military, you must know at least one person who is either serving in the military or has fought in many of the wars we read about in history books. Perhaps it’s a grandparent or parent, a friend, neighbor... it may be a complete stranger walking down the sidewalk in a U.S. Navy cap, or someone next to you at the post office with a Marine Corps tattoo. Whoever it is, please take time to remember the men and women who defended and continue to defend our freedoms, and thank them. These are not wars limited to those who marched under the American flag, but counts as its host of patron saints all the men and women who have suffered and died under flags of all nations, and with hearts of all creeds for a common purpose: the perpetuation of peace and goodwill.

This Veterans' Day is particularly important to respect. For those of us who have never stood on the tarmac at 4 AM and waved off our men and women; it is all too easy to forget that when they step onto a battlefield, they are no less the fragile sons and daughters that they were here at home. We learned that with bitter haste this week when we lost 13 men and women to anger; not on foreign lands, but within ourselves, and on our soil. Every lamentable loss of life in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan costs us more dearly in spirit than they ever could in dollars and yet those we lost this week remind us that the fatalities - those who fall and do not return home to be thanked on Veterans Day - are not nameless combatants wearing American BDUs:

They have bright faces, and families. Some came home with a baby on the way, and others were going home. Some were third generation American veterans, and others were just young kids from small towns. Sadly, they are killed every day on battlefields abroad and ask nothing more from the great beyond than our memory and our thanks. Historically, these are miniscule prices to pay for the sovereignty, peace, and self-determination that every human being craves.

For 234 years, veterans have come back proudly bearing the scars of our battles; physical, mental, and emotional. Sometimes they come home to absent jobs, absent spouses or absent friends. Never should they come home to a absent gratitude. They are a precious commodity, for their suffering is a penance paid vicariously that we, as a society, may live in peace and be free of our demons. They suffer our wars, and shoulder our freedoms. They trudge through the jungles and sweat through the heat. They miss birthdays, Christmases, anniversaries, and first words. But never do they miss their calling, and never should we miss the opportunity to honor them by embracing the memory of those veterans that are lost to us forever.

Today, this week, and this month: I encourage you to ignore politics, ignore pundits, and to reach out -- if only for a day. Do something to show that you appreciate the hardships they face. Watch Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, or When Trumpets Fade. See a Veterans' Day parade, volunteer at the USO, or donate to the VFW. Simply call your father, brother, sister, or friend and thank them for the momentous sacrifice they have agreed to make. Show your love, your civic pride, your appreciation for the disabled American veteran - for they have counted out the cost of freedom and willingly paid the price. For, within the willingness to perish for others, for peace, for freedom - for things as thin a substance as the air - lies the greatest conceivable human deviation from the lesser creatures of Nature. Irrationally, we are willing to let go of life, that others may live in peace.

This Veterans' Day, honor the sacrifice of a Soldier, Sailor, Marine or Airman and remind them that for whatever reason they are willing to give their time, sweat, blood and tears... you are thankful that they are.

Triaxian Silk would like to recognize its registered service members, prior and active - if you would please post below.

Thank you
Elessar

I'm not a veteran, but I heard something on the radio today I wanted to share. A listener said that he and his wife had been celebrating Veteran's Day the same way for 5 years. They'd go to dinner, and when they got to the restaurant they would ask the manager to their table and ask him to have the wait staff ask each customer on arrival if they were a veteran. Once they found one, this man and his wife would pay for that person's dinner to thank them.

Awesome, well-written post, Elessar!! You should send it in to the paper.


Lest We Forget

And may I suggest we tag our posts with poppy pictures?

There are a bunch here.

My friend, NebulaClassGuy linked it on his blog.

As of this year it's been 200 years since Sweden had its last official war (when we lost Finland to Russia), so we have had precious little direct experience with war for many generations. We've been lucky that way, but that also means that others have done the fighting that has also been keeping us safe and I'm forever grateful to them for that. We've had some casualties on missions such as in Congo, the Balkans and Afghanistan and I salute those of our veterans who try and keep the peace abroad.

Costa Rica hasn't had any sort of military since 1948, and even before that the only time that we had to fight for our freedom as a nation was in 1856. We are aware, though, that there are other countries willing to stand up and fight for what is right when the situation calls for it. I have great respect for those who have served for their country, and we as a nation also appreciate their courage, loyalty and valor. Many times, it is because of them that we, the smaller countries, can still enjoy our freedom and democracy.

Thanks for posting these wonderful comments, Elessar. My Dad finished medical school and went into the army at the end of WWII. He did not make it overseas, but he caught tuberculosis from one of his patients and ended up in an army hospital in Denver during the time my mother was pregnant with me. I tested positive for TB until my late teens because of being near my father, but never had TB myself. But I would never have liked to be seperated from him because of it! Today and on Memorial Day or whenever soldiers are honored I think of my father.

That's... really touching, Linda.

Well said, Elessar.