There's an old bumper sticker saying one sees every now and then that goes:
If you're reading this, thank a teacher.
If you're reading this with your mouth full, thank a farmer.
If you're reading this in English, thank a veteran.
Today - November 11th - is the day to thank that veteran. Originally, this day was Armistice Day, marking the end of the Great War on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. In 1954, an act of Congress officially changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day to recognize the veterans of all of our nation's wars - and, indeed, all veterans.
The photo above shows my family's three generations of service. My paternal grandfather, who served during World War I, is on the left. Next is Dad, a World War II veteran. Then there is me during my deployment for Operation Desert Storm, and then my wife, likewise. Grandpa and Dad didn't deploy.
Grandpa was taking his basic training in 1917 at Camp Dodge, Iowa, and while he was on KP the base commander, a Colonel, came in with some quail he had shot, looking for a volunteer to cook them. It was a personal request, so he couldn't order it done, but Grandpa, a farm kid from southwest Minnesota, had cooked up plenty of game birds in his day, so he volunteered - the result was the Colonel keeping Grandpa there at Camp Dodge as a cook for the remainder of his service.
Dad was one of the smartest men I've ever known. He went to pre-flight school and navigation school in 1943 and finished top of his class, so they kept him as an instructor for a while before sending him to radar school, then to radio navigation school, and finally to Victorville, California to check out in B-29s before deploying to the Pacific; that's where he was when the war ended. When I decided to join up myself, Dad told me, "This will change you in ways you cannot yet imagine." As usual, he was right.
My wife and I both served in the same unit, a Colorado National Guard medical company. We were a good way behind the lines. A few Scuds dropped on us, but otherwise, most of what we saw was the aftermath, and some of that was nasty. We went up the Highway of Death when the smoke was still in the air, stayed in Kuwait City for a few days, and then rotated back to northern Saudi Arabia. We saw a lot of banged-up people.
For three generations, like so many Americans, my family did what one does in the military; we went where we were told to go and did what we were told to do. That's the military life; they tell you to shoot, you shoot; they tell you to run, you run.
There were others in my family I remember this day; one uncle was a Marine, landing on Peleliu and Iwo Jima; he took a Japanese bayonet through the shoulder on Iwo and almost died of sepsis. Another uncle was a radio operator/gunner in a medium bomber in Europe and came through without a scratch. A third uncle was in the 101st Airborne, jumped into the Netherlands in Operation Market Garden, fought at Bastogne, and was wounded not long after crossing into Germany when an 88 shell fragment took off a chunk of his forehead; he ended up with a metal plate in his head and a glass eye, and never fully recovered. Then there was my brother-in-law, a Marine, one of Chesty Puller's Frozen Chosen, who was shot in the leg on the retreat from Chosin Reservoir.
Like so many American families, we all did our part. No fancy high-speed operators, no great heroes, no Medals of Honor - just Americans, doing our part. Several of my RedState colleagues are also veterans, and they, like anyone who has worn Uncle Sam's colors, are my brothers and sisters.
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That's a big part of what makes this country what it is. Americans who are willing to step up, to surrender, temporarily, a little of their freedoms to serve the country that we love. We join, we go where we are sent and do what we are told, because we're Americans.
Don't wish us a "Happy Veterans Day." It's not a day for happy wishes. It's a day for gratitude. Many of you reading this are veterans, and to you, I say thank you. Many of you have veterans in your family, and to them, I say thank you. Without our nation's veterans, without the people who were willing to step up, to go where we are sent and do the hard things we are told to do, and all too often to bear the scars from those things, both physical and mental. But we do them, because they must be done - and because America needs them done.
So, if you're reading this in a free country - a country that still elects its leaders, a country that still has freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of travel, and all the freedoms we enjoy - thank a veteran.
