You can't tell a vet just by looking:

• He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating 2 gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carrier didn't run out of fuel.

• He is the barroom loudmouth whose behavior is outweighed in the cosmic scales by four hours of unparalleled bravery near the 38th Parallel in Korea.

• She is the nurse who fought against futility in Da Nang and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years.

• He is the POW who left one person and came back another.

• He is the drill instructor who has never been in combat but has saved countless lives by turning no-accounts into Marines.

• He is the parade-riding legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

• He is the white-haired guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, aggravatingly slow, who helped liberate a Nazi death camp.

A vet is an ordinary and extraordinary human being --- someone who offered his life's vital years in the service of his country.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known. We will never be able to repay the debt of gratitude we owe.

~Author Unknown~

It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin does the flag drape,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

~"Veterans Day" by Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC~

PLEASE REMEMBER OUR VETERANS
NOT ONLY ON VETERANS DAY,
BUT ALSO ALL THROUGH THE YEAR.

Poem & essay submitted by Harry Updegraff, Jr.

Get "Medal of Honor:
Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty"
Rated

Buy "March King: John Philip Sousa"
featuring "American Patrol"

ECARD CATEGORIES:

FRIENDSHIP    ROMANCE    GIFTS    HOLIDAYS    BIRTHDAYS    OCCASIONS    HUMOR     INSPIRE    GAMES

GR-R-REETINGS! HUMORAMA! INSPIRE! GAME TIME BACKGROUND MANIA