It is once again the 11th day of the 11th month and time to celebrate Veterans Day. Veterans Day is not about protesting the political reasons for war or questioning why a person would be sent to kill another person.  Veterans Day is about celebrating those who performed the ultimate sacrifice, many with their lives, as the President of the United States to which they swore to obey commanded.  These sometimes unthinkable and brutal acts have kept the soil of the United States in tact as well as allowed all citizens to enjoy freedom.  This Veterans Day finds the men and women of our armed services in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan and stationed elsewhere around the world.

For many in our country, this holiday will go virtually unnoticed. For some, it will be a minor irritant with the closing of some government offices. But for others, it will be a solemn occasion to recognize and remember the sacrifices that they or their loved ones have made in support of our great country.

On this Veterans Day, it is important to remember that we have modern-day warriors who are dressed not in Halloween costumes, but in uniforms in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. We must not forget their service once they return home.

I thank and am proud of not only myself but those who have served and those currently serving.

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Free meal at the Golden Corral

The 2008 Military Appreciation Monday dinner will be held on Monday, November 17, 2008 from 5 pm to 9 pm in all Golden Corral Restaurants.  The free thank you dinner is available to any person who has ever served in the United States Military. If you are a veteran, retired, currently serving, in the National Guard or Reserves, you are invited to participate in Golden Corral's Military Appreciation Monday dinner.

http://www.goldencorral.com/military/

Letters from Veterans

Holland, February 22, 1945

Dear Ms. Troby,

...the gents that I speak of down here are usually known but to a few -- and ask no publicity. There are some of the officers and NCOs who live down there in hell -- just a few miles from here -- and they stay there days, weeks, and months, until they are killed. There are just a few. They teach men, feed them, protect them, and lead them sooner or later into the jaws of a hell that is the bloodiest, dirtiest, most vicious kind of murder that man, with all his machines, has been able to devise.

These men are loved with a kind of love that exists no place but on the battlefield -- and it is never talked about. These gents go for days without sleep, give away their clothes, go without food, keep going when they are sick, perform miraculous feats when they are wounded, and take the suicidal details rather than ask someone else to do it. They are never afraid, they are never cold, they never complain, and they spend all of their time trying to think of ways to help their men -- and to save them. I don't know if they are happy -- but if it isn't selflessness I never hope to see it.

And I don't mean to leave out the privates -- but the officers and non-coms are the ones I'm thinking of. Remember I said there were just a few like this. The stories come trickling in every once in a while. They usually stay there until they die. Surely they must be God's people. He was like that. I'm sure they swore and drank and did a lot of other things -- but I am sure God got them when they went away...

Bye you,
Whitney

More at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/sfeature/sf_letters.html

Medal of Honor

I watched the television program, Medal of Honor recently.  In MEDAL OF HONOR, a new documentary that PBS announced which began airing nationwide on November 5 at 9 p.m., powerful stories of those who have received our nation's highest military honor beg fundamental questions about the nature of the human spirit and what it means to have the courage of a hero. What makes a person face almost certain death in order to save the lives of others? What gives a person the strength to endure unspeakable acts of torture under the hands of an enemy without losing the will to carry on? And is every person, if put into the same situation, capable of such virtues? Can we all be heroes?

More at: http://www.pbs.org/medalofhonor/ 

Current Statistics for Iraqi Freedom campaign

Iraq*: 4193 KIA; 1 MIA      Afghanistan*: 626 KIA
*As of 11/08/2008

Keep up to the most current for MIA/KIA's at: http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.html or http://www.zeitlangers.com/