"padredog" <padredog@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1194899788.224712.215630@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> This is for the men and women who voluntarily wear this country's
> uniform, and fight, so we can stay free.
> Free to agree or disagree with why we fight, or where we fight.
> Some of them would say, they fight for our freedom, even the freedom
> to criticize the wars they fight in.
> Freedom to say what we want.
> Freedom.
>
> Feel free to say whatever you desire.
>
This is something I post on groups that practice alternative religions as
I
do. I post it there because some of these folks are so anti-establishment
(for at least partially good cause) that they have a tendency to lump the
individual military person as huge cogs in that wheel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Veteran's Day is here. While many of us do not approve of they way our
armed
forces have been used by this president and by his recent predecessors, I
believe it is good to remind ourselves that the armed forces are made up
of
individuals whom are trying to do the 'right thing'. These men and women
serving today are not so different from those that served in the past.
My father's father was stationed in Germany immediately after World War
II.
They lived near Supreme Allied Command Europe Head Quarters. As young boys
they would sneak into the basement of the building (the times were
different
then) and watch captured German war footage. He once told me that the
images
he saw were worse than anything shown on television about the holocaust.
Right there he said, "Never again."
After high school, he enlisted in the army and after basic was asked if he
wanted to volunteer. "For what," he asked. There was no meaningful reply.
He
said yes and found himself in counter intelligence school. At around the
age
of twenty, during the height of the cold war, he walked in the streets of
Russian cities not knowing a word of the language and accomplished his
tasks. I once asked him how he managed to blend in. He said, "I just kept
telling myself I am a Russian. I am a Russian." Alone, he walked through
snow covered mountains, was dropped into inhospitable desserts and was
once
the only agent to get in and out of Romania alive. Unlike many heroes that
acted on a spur of the moment impulse, this hero consciously chose each
life
threatening mission, as every mission was strictly volunteer. He actively
chose to risk his life -- routinely. He didn't do this for the GI Bill,
money for college or anything else. He did it because of a boyhood
promise.
Never again.
People like this never retire until their bodies do. He worked missions
long
after he left the military for medical reasons. "Never again," he said.
Much later in life he once told me that it wasn't until many years later
that he realized all our enemies were 'over here.' My father ascribes to
no
religion but would and has put his life on the line to make sure that you
can practice yours.
So on this Veteran's Day remember my father and the many men and women
like
him that have served this country for the right reasons, for honorable
reasons and because they are heroes. What would the world be like if we
were
all half as brave?
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