Hug a vet today

[PornoDoggy]

Originally posted by Anthony@Nov 11 2003, 01:05 PM


{{{{{{Fellow Veterans}}}}}}}



My old Base Commander, Colonel Troth at Ft. Devens said this at our graduation speech.

You are the few that protect our country's freedom. You, as sailors, marines, airmen, and soldiers, willingly give away some of your freedoms to protect those of American Citizens.

Be proud of what you have accomplished here, and what you will in the future.

I went to Magic Mountain this past sunday to watch my daughter compete in a cheerleading contest (They got 1st place). Last time I was there at that park, I was 19 years old. Young, dumb, and full of cum, as the Navy saying goes. 14 years later, I'm walking through the old rides and new ones, having to go through which one of my twins gets to sit with me and which ones sits with their mother. Serving your country isn't mandatory, it is volunteer. Some of us join for economic, some for patriotic, some because we had nothing else to do (Me). If I didn't join, I wouldn't have had my twins, since I met their mother in Navy Boot Camp, Orlando.

Here's to all the veterans, past, present, and future. May your service affect your life as it did mine.

I remember, as a kid, going to the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis with my grandfather for the annual reunion of his unit from WWI. They had graves dating back to the revolution, the civil war (both sides), and just about every other conflict including Indian wars. The ones that still give me chills to think about were the mass graves for entire aircrews lost in the 2nd World War and in Korea.

It was always hard to imagine my pipefitter grandfather and his cronies as soldiers - after all, they were old. It was almost as hard to imagine my salesman father as a gunner on a Coast Guard Destroyer Escort, or my structural engineer Uncle a Marine on Guadacanal. To hear my dad and my uncle tell war stories, all they did was get drunk on liberty. I have absolutely no doubt that they did so, but my dad ended up with a Navy Cross for convoy duty to Russia after the Germans occupied the northern Norwegian airfields, and my uncle two bronze stars.

Last week I was at the VA for an appointment, and I found myself in the radiology waiting room with an 80-year old vet who fought his way across France with Patton, a 60 year old who'd been to Vietnam, another guy, like me, who lucked into service during a time of relative peace, and a 20 year old reservist back home from Iraq with some shrapnel souveniers he'll carry for the rest of his life.

When did they get so friggin' young?