A friend was at my office a while back right when a reader came by to visit. I introduced them, and before I could add the usual “He’s also a veteran,” the two had evaluated each other. Both served in the Global War on Terror, and while they never met in the field, their units crossed paths along the way.
Later they talked in the parking lot for a long time. I don’t know about what, since it wasn’t any of my business, but they obviously had a connection I can never understand.
I’ve seen it before, often with men and women of different branches of service and even different eras. The caution at first, usually followed by small talk. Once or twice friendship was the result.
I do not envy the horrors they may have seen, but I envy that bond.
I grew up around veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. I have often written of Mr. Jimmy, a World War I veteran who frequented the barbershop where Uncle Rip cut my hair every Saturday (he was a U.S. Army veteran injured in North Africa).
We boys loved Mr. Jimmy, because even with an advanced cognitive problem, combined with coming back “messed up” from the so-called Great War, he told stories about his experiences. The fact that a very few of the stories were not age-appropriate just made them that much more real to us, and concerning to our parents. I never knew my grandfather, who served in the same war, but it was fascinating to me as a young boy, as any war is to any young boy.
Mr. Jimmy was always cold; even in summer, he wore layers. He talked non-stop, a monotone about being cold and wet, even when it was dry as a bone and 100 degrees outside. He always smelled of cats, since they gathered at the front porch where he sat when he wasn’t walking around our town, talking to himself or anyone who would listen. I was riding my bike back a late from fishing one night, and he was sitting on his porch in the dark, still talking.
It took years for me to realize that his problems were the cost paid by so many who serve our country. Today we have the Veterans Administration and other benefits for veterans (not enough, and often that which is there is not good enough) but for Mr. Jimmy, there wasn’t a support network or help when he came home. Just a family who took care of him best as they could.
There was a bit more for the WWII veterans as well as those from Korea; our country does learn from its mistakes, and that generation was treated somewhat better. Society dropped the ball in Vietnam, and politicians made it worse by targeting the veterans instead of the politicians in safe offices who wrote checks paid in blood by young men in the jungle.
Then came Desert Storm and Desert Shield, followed by the GWOT, better known simply as Afghanistan and Iraq, although we always had people in other places most Americans will never know about. America was technically at peace when another friend was in Africa (of all places) when he missed a family milestone. He said he didn’t mind, since he was serving his country.
In between those times, before, during and after the Cold War, hundreds of thousands of Americans stood ready to fight or support those who would defend our country against enemies who hate what we have.
When I was a kid, WWI was incredibly ancient history, almost as old as the War Between the States, if not as old as the American Revolution. We heard the stories and memories from the WWI and Korea veterans, but those who survived Vietnam were just middle aged, still cautious, and hadn’t developed the garrulous nature of old men. I see that tendency to tell “war stories” as an instinctive need to pass on lessons learned to younger generations, although we all know some who just love to hear themselves talk. Others are seeking that connection with those who have worn one uniform or the other, since it is only with contemporaries they can be truly comfortable.
We honor all our veterans on Nov. 11, which commemorates the date the First World War officially ended, at 11 a.m. It was originally called Armistice Day, since politicians declared there would never again be something so horrifying as the war that ended on 11/11/1918. It wasn’t long before folks saw how a manmade universal peace would work out. Apparently folks forgot to take into account that the human race has always fought, and we will until Christ returns, breaking the swords to sunder and snapping the proverbial bow in pieces.
Because of the threat of war, we need a strong military; that requires folks to set aside their lives for years at a time to serve their country. Many who served our country had no choice, but we haven’t had a draft in decades, yet there is currently no shortage of people willing to bid their families goodbye and put on a uniform.
My hearing was too bad for me to serve, so like my father, whose flat feet kept him from fighting Germany and Japan, I have always felt humbled and honored to call veterans my friends. Even if they never did anything more dangerous than argue with a supply sergeant, they have served.
They all signed a piece of paper giving control of their lives to others who might not be the most qualified to make the right decisions, for salaries below minimum wage, often in working conditions that would be off-putting to the strongest field hand. As a friend put it, they volunteered to eat bad food out of plastic bags in inhospitable places while trying to help ungrateful people who often shot at them – sometimes as they ate the aforementioned bad food.
That takes a special kind of person.
This past weekend and this week were packed with Veterans Day events, as they should have been.
I hope we deserve all that they have given for us; whether it was an arm (like one of my WWII heroes), their legs (like the Afghan War buddy of my Cajun nevoo, John Thomas) or their minds, like Mr. Jimmy. I don’t know a single veteran who wishes he or she hadn’t served; they regret some things that happened during their service, of course, but they don’t regret serving and protecting the country they call home.
Much of the time, we don’t deserve to stand on the same street corner, but they don’t mind.
While we honor our veterans this week, I sincerely hope you will make an effort to do more than applaud, watch a war movie or just say the right words.
Try to be an American worthy of their sacrifice.
After all they have done for us, it’s the least we can do for them.
