quite a week with veterans day kicking it off

[mdeland]

I got an invite from my daughter to attend a school veterans appreciation day assembly. The reason was not only to recognize those who have served in the armed forces but to teach this generation of the cost of their freedom. If they are not taught this then we grow a new crop of self centered idiots who have no clue what their advantages and privileges cost.
I did well until called up on stage to face a filled auditorium of grateful citizens showing their love and support. Seemed very strange to a Nam era vet to be appreciated, it was a different time back then !
Listening to taps was hard as I thought back to my job as a medic working the flight line and checking in the KIA from Nam and remembering those who "REALLY PAID"the price, young soldiers with their whole life ahead of them and were cut down in the spring of their existence.
It has ever been so with every generation, dealing with war and the aftermath, but the actual reality of cost can only be realize by those who's life has been touched by the experience.
Vets still do a great service to our nation by causing us not to forget!

[Dan O]

Thank you for your service.
Dan

[kenny s]

I'm a Hospice volunteer and now do Military pinnings ....older guys push themselves up out of the wheelchair to return my salute......tears in my eyes.

WWII, Korea, Gulf, Nam of course....old vets...still Proud as I am. Never met a vet that wasn't happy they did the 'thing' for their country.
millennials today. get all bent out of shape if their cell phone battery goes dead.

bring back the draft. Everyone, And I mean everyone has to give two years in country service. peace corps, military, etc.
teach them respect for the flag. The only time one of us knelled was if we got hit....

and I preach on and on......oh well.....
Happy vet day to us all...Ken

CPT Army Nam 60 and 69.

[kenny s]

I'm a Hospice volunteer and now do Military pinnings ....older guys push themselves up out of the wheelchair to return my salute......tears in my eyes.

WWII, Korea, Gulf, Nam of course....old vets...still Proud as I am. Never met a vet that wasn't happy they did the 'thing' for their country.
millennials today. get all bent out of shape if their cell phone battery goes dead.

bring back the draft. Everyone, And I mean everyone has to give two years in country service. peace corps, military, etc.
teach them respect for the flag. The only time one of us knelled was if we got hit....

and I preach on and on......oh well.....
Happy vet day to us all...Ken

CPT Army Nam 60 and 69.

[kenny s]

I'm a Hospice volunteer and now do Military pinnings ....older guys push themselves up out of the wheelchair to return my salute......tears in my eyes.

WWII, Korea, Gulf, Nam of course....old vets...still Proud as I am. Never met a vet that wasn't happy they did the 'thing' for their country.
millennials today. get all bent out of shape if their cell phone battery goes dead.

bring back the draft. Everyone, And I mean everyone has to give two years in country service. peace corps, military, etc.
teach them respect for the flag. The only time one of us knelled was if we got hit....

and I preach on and on......oh well.....
Happy vet day to us all...Ken

CPT Army Nam 60 and 69.

[SFogler]

My daughter married a West Point grad Army Blackhawk pilot this summer. They were married in the West Point Chapel. My wife and I had a chance to tour the West Point Cemetery. A lot of the best men and greatest history this country ever produced is buried in that small plot of sacred land. But the gravestone that brought moisture to my eyes was a simple Mil Gravestone, 1 ea, bearing the name of a female Lt: "Graduated Class 2005 - KIA Afghanistan 2007" Thank you veterans for your service. And thank you parents - you still raise the best there is.

[Woody]

We shot at Friendship this past weekend, (Sunday,10 Nov). During the morning briefing, all Veterans were recognized. Veterans were the majority present. A little thing, but I for one appreciated it.

At times like this, I think of my father, who at 23 yoa, in 1939, enlisted in the Army Air Forces and served for the next 23 years. At his funeral in 1997, the U. S. Air Force provided a foot stone commemorating his service, a bugler, and a firing squad. At times like this, I get a little emotional.

Thank you, all veterans, present and past who, by their service, risked all, by writing a blank check to our country.

Richard A. Wood, 1SG, U.S. Army, Retired

[Woody]

We shot at Friendship this past weekend, (Sunday,10 Nov). During the morning briefing, all Veterans were recognized. Veterans were the majority present. A little thing, but I for one appreciated it.

At times like this, I think of my father, who at 23 yoa, in 1939, enlisted in the Army Air Forces and served for the next 23 years. At his funeral in 1997, the U. S. Air Force provided a foot stone commemorating his service, a bugler, and a firing squad. At times like this, I get a little emotional.

Thank you, all veterans, present and past who, by their service, risked all, by writing a blank check to our country.

Richard A. Wood, 1SG, U.S. Army, Retired

[alfajim]

Just want to add my thoughts to the veterans on here.
I am from a three generation Navy family my dad was in the Navy in the 30's got out shortly before Pearl Harbor as a 1st class PO MM after the attack he went to reenlist as was told no as he was working in the steam shop at the SF ship yard as a certified Welder and his job was to valuable to the war effort so he built ships the entire time.

I joined the Army after graduating High School to get what I wanted vers getting drafted and being a ground pounder. I wanted to fly helicopters as I already had my pilots license was told copter pilots were Warrant Officers to fly copters but the recruiter neglected to tell me had to be 21 to be a Warrant Officer was 18 so became an Aircraft Mechanic did my time at FT Knox KY. got out after three.

Needing to get a new job in early 1986 looked to work for the Air Guard which also meant joining the Air Guard was told I was three months to old but go see the Navy as their policy let you stay in past your 60th birthday till 63 to make 20 good years. So joined the Navy Reserve as an Aircraft Electrician AE3 as a APG E4 3rd class PO. Made 2nd class right away then 1st class 10 yrs later, no openings in the rate for that long. Retired in 2003 as a AE1.

My son joined the Navy as a junior in high school in 1997 graduated in 98 went to basic then A school for AME came out of school 1st in class with honors with advancement to 3rd class AME3 made 2nd class in 18months to 8yrs for 1st. made chief about 5yrs ago and retired last year 2018 as a AMEC.

So I am a Vietnam Era vet. Army, first gulf war vet. Navy start of Iraq war Navy and my son all of the Iraq vet.

James E Olson Army PFC 61-64, AE1 retired Navy reserve. 1986 - 2003

[art ruggiero]

don't forget the bryans are long time military thanks to them art

[opencountry]

I grew up surrounded by veterans on my mom's side of the family. Some chose it for a lifetime career, others were inducted into service during WWII, mainly US Army and US Navy. My grandfather on my dad's side survived WWI, became a wheat farmer in the Palouse Country in WA State. Two of my mom's brothers served with Gen. Patton's Army at the Bulge, another uncle went down in his fighter in the waters off of Guam. I suppose all of this had a big influence on me, and persuaded me to join the Army in 1967 right after turning seventeen years of age, along with my best friend. I went off to Basic in Ft. Lewis, WA, then to AIT in Ft. Rucker, Alabama in the winter of '67/'68. Spinal meningitis broke out at the base, and many never came back to duty, and many died. After completing fixed-wing and UH-1 helicopter repair school at Ft. Rucker all 680 of us graduates from the school went to the 'waling wall' to view our next duty station. Republic of Vietnam (RVN) was where every soul, whether helicopter pilot, or crewchief was being assigned to. My friend and I were the ONLY ones who weren't heading there. I went to the company commander and asked him why my friend and I weren't going with the others on the roster board. He said, "Because you're both still seventeen years old." I was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia. I spent a short time there until I turned eighteen years of age, and immediately volunteered for Vietnam on my birthday. I spent (19) months in Vietnam from 1968-1970. I was placed in a Huey as a door gunner supporting the 9th Infantry Ranger teams along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and the 25th Infantry in the heart of the Delta, along with anyone else who called on our support. Did many combat assaults, medivacs, and everything else thrown at us. I served a short time in the First Inf. (Big Red One) Division's base of Di-An, then moved to Dong Tam, home of the 9th Inf. Division in the heart of the Mekong. I was very lucky, in that I got shot only once, burned with willy peter (white phosphorous), and went down again on a mechanical failure. I witnessed a lot, and took part in a lot. When the freedom bird touched down at Travis (Oakland, CA) in April of 1970 I nearly kissed the ground when I stepped off the last step coming off the bird. That's my story. I witnessed many lives being taken before their 'three score and ten', and I give the deepest respects to ALL who take the sacred pledge to protect their country's freedoms, and also the value of human lives throughout this world of ours. The wife of one of my dearest friends told me that while she was in high school during the hardest years in Vietnam's war she wrote 'support' letters to the soldiers in Vietnam letting them know that they were not forgotten. I just had to hold my tears back, people, when she told me this. It's the very best thing to know that someone really cares about you, and has taken the time; it pulls from way down deep inside. It's not the big things we do; it's the little things we leave undone that really count.

[MSalyards]

Thank you Robert , and everyone else!

[GrumpyBear]

My Thanks to all of you that served, I did not, fell in between the cracks so to speak, but I have enormous respect for all who did.

God Bless all of you for your service to our country.

[buffalocannon]

Thanks for your service, all fellow vets out there. My Grandpa John served in WWI, my Dad and two uncles in WWII.

Steve Cannon, USN, Vietnam Era Vet, 1966-1972