http://www.bizlevity.com/this-one-is-for-the-veterans/ :rock::rock:
This One Is For The Veterans
by markjabo on November 11th, 2008
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn’t come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket — palsied now and aggravatingly slow — who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being — a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
-Father Denis O’Brien
*************** On Comradeship
When a soldier was injured and could not get back to safety, his buddy went out to get him, against his officer’s orders. He returned mortally wounded and his friend, whom he had carried back, was dead.
The officer was angry. “I told you not to go,” he said. “Now I’ve lost both of you. It was not worth it.”
The dying man replied, “But it was, sir, because when I got to him he said, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”
***************
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight; nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
-John Stewart Mill
*************** A week before the battle of Bull Run, Sullivan Ballou, a Major in the Second Rhode Island volunteers wrote home to his wife in Smithfield…
July 14 1861
Washington D.C.
Dear Sarah,
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. Unlest I shall not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I’m no more. I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet, my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bares me irresistibly with all those chains to the battle field. The memory of all the blissful moments I’ve enjoyed with you come crowding over me and I feel most deeply grateful to God and You that I’ve enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing we might still have lived and loved together and see or boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.
If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been. But oh Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you in brightest day and the darkest night—always, always. And when the soft breeze fans you cheek, it shall be my breath or the cool air on your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not moan me dead, think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again.
Sullivan Ballou
Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the battle of Bull Run.
***************
I am an American
I owe you no apologies nor will I accept
Those apologies made for me by others.
If you dislike me—you dislike me not for
What I am but for what you are not.
By my own sweat, I have created a lifestyle
Which I desire for all men.
To the world I have shared my wealth and
Given my blood, not because of obligation—
But by my free will. I have fed the
Hungry of the world. Many bit my hand;
I used the other hand.
I defeated my enemies in battle, then
Pulled them up from the ashes of defeat.
Once strong, they again attacked; I turned
The other cheek. Though I am strong, I
Have never used my strength to rule others.
But do not misjudge me, I will not allow the
Fear of my own strength to become my weakness.
If you wish to rise, I will give you a helping
Hand. But by the grace of God, and I’ll
First be damned, if I’ll let you drag me
Down so that we may equal.
-D. Ault
This One Is For The Veterans
by markjabo on November 11th, 2008
Some Thoughts On Veterans Day…
What is a vet?He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn’t come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket — palsied now and aggravatingly slow — who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being — a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
-Father Denis O’Brien
*************** On Comradeship
When a soldier was injured and could not get back to safety, his buddy went out to get him, against his officer’s orders. He returned mortally wounded and his friend, whom he had carried back, was dead.
The officer was angry. “I told you not to go,” he said. “Now I’ve lost both of you. It was not worth it.”
The dying man replied, “But it was, sir, because when I got to him he said, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”
***************
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight; nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
-John Stewart Mill
*************** A week before the battle of Bull Run, Sullivan Ballou, a Major in the Second Rhode Island volunteers wrote home to his wife in Smithfield…
July 14 1861
Washington D.C.
Dear Sarah,
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. Unlest I shall not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I’m no more. I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet, my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bares me irresistibly with all those chains to the battle field. The memory of all the blissful moments I’ve enjoyed with you come crowding over me and I feel most deeply grateful to God and You that I’ve enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing we might still have lived and loved together and see or boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.
If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been. But oh Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you in brightest day and the darkest night—always, always. And when the soft breeze fans you cheek, it shall be my breath or the cool air on your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not moan me dead, think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again.
Sullivan Ballou
Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the battle of Bull Run.
***************
I am an American
I owe you no apologies nor will I accept
Those apologies made for me by others.
If you dislike me—you dislike me not for
What I am but for what you are not.
By my own sweat, I have created a lifestyle
Which I desire for all men.
To the world I have shared my wealth and
Given my blood, not because of obligation—
But by my free will. I have fed the
Hungry of the world. Many bit my hand;
I used the other hand.
I defeated my enemies in battle, then
Pulled them up from the ashes of defeat.
Once strong, they again attacked; I turned
The other cheek. Though I am strong, I
Have never used my strength to rule others.
But do not misjudge me, I will not allow the
Fear of my own strength to become my weakness.
If you wish to rise, I will give you a helping
Hand. But by the grace of God, and I’ll
First be damned, if I’ll let you drag me
Down so that we may equal.
-D. Ault
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