Veteran's Day 2012

Today I salute my brave band of brothers, my fellow veterans. In most peoples' lives they can point to a time frame that shaped the rest of their lives, whether it be a few years as a Boy Scout or Girl Scout, or their years at college, or time spent on a sports team. In my case it was my 4 years in the Army that has forever shaped the guy I came to be (ostensibly) as an adult.

I am thankful for those I served with and to those I have befriended through the years, and grateful for the ones who paved the way before me and continued after me. I also salute their families, who sacrifice just as much as we service members do. I have been surrounded by veterans my entire life, from family members as a child through to today. I salute my fellows who have served in other nations' forces, protecting their own homelands.

 

Thank you all for enriching my life. I couldn't ask for a better band of brothers.

 

Yeah, that's me. It was 1989 in Germany. Hooahh.

 "I now know why men who have been to war year to reunite. Not to tell stories or look at old pictures. Not to laugh or weep. Comrades gather because they long to be with the men who once acted at their best; men who suffered and sacrificed, who were stripped of their humanity. I did not pick these men; they were delivered to me by fate and the military. But I know them in a way I know no other men. I have never given anyone such trust. They were willing to guard something more precious than my life. They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me. It was part of the bargain we all made, the reason we were so willing to die for one another. As long as I have memory I will think of them all, every day. I am sure that when I leave this world my last thought will be of my family and my comrades...such good men. "

Mike Norman, from his book "Such Good Men"

Veteran's Day 2011

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It was a long day at work today; an eleven-hour shift. As I was driving home I passed a Chili’s restaurant and was lamenting the fact that once again work kept me from partaking in any of the free offers from various establishments on Veteran’s Day, I happened to glance over at the car in traffic next to me. Actually, it wasn’t the car itself, but rather the Gold Star Family license plate. I instantly stopped complaining and sucked it up like the soldier I once was.

Unfamiliar with what a Gold Star family is? Look it up & educate yourself.

I come from a very long line of military veterans on both sides of the family. It’s just a higher calling that seems to be embedded in our genes.

I’m always grateful and humbled by the thanks I get from my friends & family on Veteran’s Day. I actually feel somewhat awkward when someone thanks me in person; I mean, I sort of don’t know what to say in reply. I feel weird saying “You’re welcome”, and instead I simply thank them for their kindness. No soldier I served with did it for the thanks, or for the praise, or for medals & glory. We do it out of a sense of duty and of giving back to our country. Like I said, it’s a calling and a belief in serving what we feel is the greatest nation on Earth.

Allow me to stray a moment and talk about the ideal of American Exceptionalism. I don’t speak of it flippantly, nor do I say it with the arrogance often attributed to many Americans. I’m proud of my country and firmly believe that I live in the greatest nation on Earth, but in saying that I’m not implying that other countries are inferior. I think all people, no matter where they hail from, should be proud of their country and their culture and to feel that they, too, live in the greatest country on Earth no matter what country that may be; it inspires us to better our nations and our peoples and ourselves. I had the great fortune to spend two wonderful years as a guest of the German people during my enlistment and it was an experience I will always treasure.

Okay, back to Veteran’s Day…

I only served for four years. I did not do a full 20 and retire. I did not see combat or engage an enemy in battle. But serve I did, willingly and gladly. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Today I salute you, my fellow veterans…we few, we band of brothers. My fellow soldiers of the United States Army, the sailors of the Unites States Navy, the airmen of the United States Air Force, the few & proud of the United States Marine Corps, the intrepid members of the United States Coast Guard…

To my fellow soldiers of the 285^th Military Police Company, it was an honor and privilege to serve with you. To my squadmates and the entire community in Goeppingen, Germany…those two short years profoundly affected the man I grew to be.

To my platoon mates at the US Army Correctional Brigade at Fort Riley, it wasn’t Hell but we could see it from there. Thank you for making a wretched situation bearable and, at times, fun.

To my friends from other countries who served their own nations…be it the RCAF, the British Royal Navy, the German Bundeswehr, the Norske Marine, or another branch I salute your service.

To my fellow veterans among the Traip Academy graduates of the Class of 1987( and there are actually quite a few of us) and the other veterans from Traip, what a long strange trip it’s been. We’ve known each other over 2/3 of our lives and you still put up with me.

To the families of veterans…the sons & daughters, the spouses, the parents…Thank You. We couldn’t do it without you at home to back us up.

And to the Gold Star Families…God Bless You for your sacrifices.

Yup, that's me...January 1988 in boot camp..............

Veteran's Day 2010

Today has been great.

I don't bitch about having to work on Veteran's Day too loudly, because too many of my fellow vets aren't alive to enjoy the day with me. I may have had to work at -25 degrees today, but I am alive & whole to do it.

As always, I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and gratitude from the people I know. My day has been filled with well-wishes and thank-yous, and it's been rather humbling and really heart-warming. No one serves to get the recognition and the platitudes; if they do then they aren't truly "serving" and tarnish the memory of those who have served honorably.

And unlike last year, I was finally able to get into Applebees and enjoy my free lunch. It was packed but not insanely so, filled with vets from every branch, from WW2 to currently serving troops. Made a new friend sitting at the bar, a fellow Army vet who was in Germany about 10 years after I was. When you're a veteran, you're never without instant friends as soon as you come across another. Five minutes after the first hello, you're talking like you've known each other for years.

I'm dedicating this year's Veteran's Day post to the grandfather of one of my high school classmates. Gerald L. Martin enlisted in the National Guard on July 10, 1940 before assignment to Company 1, 103rd Division as an infantryman. He served in the Pacific Theater, and was discharged in September 1945 with the rank of Sergeant. He remained in the National Guard for 28 years as a Company Commander and attained the rank of Major. Gerald passed away this morning in Millinocket, Maine at the age of 88. Godspeed, sir.

All I wanted was a cheeseburger...

When I woke up for work today at 0230 (that’s 2:30 AM for some of you), I was a bit surprised to find that Mrs. Steve had placed a copy of my DD Form 214 on my laptop next to my car keys. A DD214 is your Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (ie: Discharge Papers is the easiest explanation). Needless to say I was puzzled, until she told me that with today being Veteran’s Day, I could hop on over after work to Applebee’s and get a free meal with proof of my service.

Cool. Verrrry cool.

So I went to work and skipped my usual 8AM lunch, to be sure I had room for what I daydreamed of all morning, either a medium rare steak or a juicy bacon cheeseburger. It was pouring rain sideways all day, and a nice hot meal would really brighten my day.

Work finally ends and I fight the lunch-hour traffic idiocy on my way to my Meaty Mecca.(People here can't drive properly on dry roads on a clear sunny day. Throw in the least bit of precip, and I may as well be driving convoy in Fallujah). Finally, Applebee’s is in sight. However, there’s a glitch. The place is absolutely slammed. There’s a line out the door. I drove around the building 3 times and not a single parking spot to be found. I finally ended up over a hundred yards away on a side street in the grass. It seems that every single military retiree, veteran, and active duty body in Charleston had descended on the place. It’s 5 miles from the Air Force base and about 10 miles from the Navy base.

I waited in the car for like 20 minutes or so, waiting for the rain to let up, and all the while more and more people kept piling in. Carload after carload of impossibly young troops out for lunch. Yet another shiny new Mustang pulls up & disgorges a pair or post-pubescent defenders of democracy, dressed alike in their plaid shorts, flip flops, and Ed Hardy t-shirts. Combine their ages and I think I’m still older by a year or two. Been out of boot camp for five whole minutes, they had the day off, and they wanted their free lunch. I got up for work before basic trainees even get up, and I get an Applebee’s that looked like Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

I hate lines & crowds & rain. Defeated, I drove away dejectedly. No reward today for my Cold War service. I ended up eating a rather mediocre lunch in a deserted Popeye’s. All I wanted was my cheeseburger, and ended up with indigestion from red beans & rice.

Oh well; there’s always next year.

On the plus side, my friend Wil was able to get the day off today. One of his co-workers actually donated a vacation day so that Wil could be off on Veteran’s Day.The dude verily insisted that Wil get the day off. That’s class act, I tell ya’.

Veteran's Day 2009

As I always do each November, it’s time for me to take a minute and salute my fellow veterans.

It’s been almost 22 years since I said my goodbyes at the bus station in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on a sunny and cold January afternoon and rode up to Portland, Maine to begin my odyssey into a chapter of my life that never fully ended. You can take the boy out of the Army, but you can’t ever really take the Army out of the boy.

I am exceedingly proud of the time I spent serving our great nation. From an early age I knew that I wanted to be a soldier, at least for a while before I went on to other things. Some kids want to be firemen or cops or pro athletes or even rock stars. Not me; I wanted to be a soldier. (Okay, for a short time I wanted to be a paleontologist, but that was in the mid-70’s before dinosaurs were cool. But then a killjoy told me that I’d never make any money digging up bones, so I scuttled that dream and started over)

I come from a long line of soldiers and sailors, and I have family still in who carry on the tradition. My people have fought in many a conflict, from the Boer War to WW2 to Vietnam to the Cold War to the Global War on Terror. On one side we trace our roots back to the Crusades.

This year, Veteran’s Day takes on an even more special meaning for a couple of reasons.

Within the past couple weeks, through Facebook, I’ve been able to get back in touch with four of the guys I served with in Germany and hadn’t really talked to since 1990. We picked right back up again just like it had only been a couple weeks apart instead of 19 years, and it really says something about the bond we shared as soldiers & comrades & friends.

And of course, it’s also a somber Veteran’s Day as we reflect on the hideous, murderous, treasonous terrorist act of murder at Fort Hood.

I leave you all with a couple quotes…

"For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know..."--Tim Craft

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be never so vile. This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. “—William Shakespeare


And of course, the poem that I first read on the wall of a classroom at the United States Army Military Police School in 1988…

I was that which others did not want to be.

I went where others feared to go and did what others failed to do.

I asked nothing from those who gave nothing and reluctantly accepted the thought of eternal loneliness...should I fail.

I have seen the face of terror; felt the stinging cold of fear; and enjoyed the sweet taste of a moments love.

I have cried, pained, and hoped...but most of all, i have lived times others would say were best forgotten.

At least someday, I will be able to say that i was proud of what I was...a Soldier.

George L. Skypeck

Veteran's Day 2008

Remembering my brothers & sisters in arms, and those who have passed on.

Soldier

I was that which others did not want to be.

I went where others feared to go and did what others failed to do.

I asked nothing from those who gave nothing and reluctantly accepted the thought of eternal lonliness...should i fail.

I have seen the face of terror; felt the stinging cold of fear; and enjoyed the sweet taste of a moments love.

I have cried, pained, and hoped...but most of all, I have lived times others would say were best forgotten.

At least someday, I will be able to say that I was proud of what I was...a Soldier.

George L. Skypeck

Veteran's Day 2007

Click the picture to read the text...

This Sunday marks the passing of Veteran’s Day. Sad to say, most people will go about their lives as normal without any real thought to what the holiday means. They’ll go shopping, since everybody’s running special sales. They’ll watch football, since that’s what Americans do on Sunday. Some of them will enjoy a day off from work or school on Monday, and give no further thought as to why.

Some of us, though, are well aware of the sacrifices endured by this nation’s military veterans and their families throughout our 231 years as the United States of America.

The military as a whole does not care if you’re a Democrat or Republican. It does not care if you are a Catholic, a Baptist, a Jew, a Pagan, or even an Atheist. It does not care if you’re from a wealthy Harvard background or if you’re from a hardscrabble farm out in the boonies. The military serves all, protects all, and embraces all.

I myself come from a VERY long military tradition in my family. One line of my mom’s family goes back to the crusader knights under Richard III of England. Also on mom’s side, my great-great grandfather died in the Boer War in South Africa fighting against the Dutch Afrikaners who eventually instituted Apartheid. My great grandfather served in the 75th Highlanders of the Canadian Army. Both of my mom’s parents served in the Canadian military during World War Two. My grandmother’s brother spent a career in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Two of my mom’s brothers served in the US Army during Vietnam, neither of them American citizens at the time. My stepfather served 24 years in the US Navy’s submarine fleet, starting as an enlisted man & retiring as a Lieutenant Commander.

My father served briefly in the Army during Vietnam but was injured before deploying and was medically retired. Two of his brothers each served over 20 years in the Army and another brother is a Navy chaplain. My paternal grandfather was a nose-gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber during World War Two.

My father-in-law is an Army veteran. Two of my cousins have done tours in Iraq. The brother of one of my closest friends is there on his third tour right now. Of my high school circle of friends, pretty much all of us entered the services. Of my current friends, many are veterans. And then there’s me, who for four years served likewise as a Military Policeman in the US Army.

So, yes, I take service to our nation quite seriously.

In college, they scheduled Columbus Day as a day off and had classes scheduled for Veteran's Day. I warned my instructors ahead of time that I'd not be there or Veteran's Day, and when one of them questioned me as to why, I just flatly stated: "It's MY holiday and I earned it."

A sad news story making the rounds this week proclaimed that veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population. That’s insane. If you’re an employer reading this, hire a veteran. You’ll be getting a self-motivated employee who doesn’t need to be babysat and has built-in leadership skills and attention to detail. Give a little back to those who give so much. This weekend, take a second or two to reflect on all that you have because of the service of our vets. Have YOU hugged a veteran today?

A favorite bumper sticker of mine reads:” If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.”

I salute my fellow vets. You are all my sisters & brothers, my comrades, and the true heroes of this great nation. Thank you all for your service and your sacrifice.