With my well known propensity to get quite upset when I feel that that America’s military veterans are being mistreated or just plain forgotten in the rush of “politics as usual” in Washington, you’ll generally find me involved in our local veterans organizations, and taking part in various Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. As the high point of Veterans Day a few weeks ago, I attended the assembly at Grangeville High School where Pat Sullivan’s history class did their usual fantastic job of honoring our local veterans, reminding everyone that freedom is not free, and that which many Americans take so lightly was paid for with the blood of a veteran. I make no secret of being very proud of my status as an American veteran, and with that I’m sometimes asked to define “veteran”… so at the risk of tooting my own horn, I’ll try to answer that question.
Quite often a veteran is described as someone who, at some point in his life, wrote a blank check to the American people, payable “up to and including my life if necessary” (a lot of those checks have been cashed through the years). Simplified, and according to the dictionary, “A veteran is defined by federal law, moral code and military service as "Any, Any, Any"... A military veteran is Any person who served for Any length of time in Any military service branch. A war veteran is any GI ordered to foreign soil or waters to participate in direct or support activity against an enemy. (Any GI sent in harm's way.) A combat veteran is any GI who experiences any level of hostility for any duration resulting from offensive, defensive or friendly fire military action involving a real or perceived enemy in any foreign theater.” In short, a veteran is one of those folks who fought the nations wars, so that you wouldn’t have to. Well over a million American servicemen have died in the wars and conflicts this nation has faced since the first colonial soldiers took up arms in 1775 to fight for our independence. They’ve died on American soil and on foreign soil, they’ve died at sea, and they’ve died in the air. Every one of them gave his life for this country, for our people, and our distinctly American culture. They gave their lives so that generations of Americans yet unborn could live in a free nation.
So, what else can veterans do, or rather, after the war, how do veterans live up to the American Legion’s motto of “Still Serving America”?
Well, nothing quite as spectacular as fighting a blood and guts war, but veterans in general are people who take citizenship, civic responsibility, and patriotism very seriously. Consider how many veterans gravitate to public service jobs as firemen, policemen, and Emergency Medical Technicians. Many more serve with the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol, or perhaps they merely volunteer many hours of their time with a variety of community service organizations. They’ll be found sponsoring children and youth activities such as Little League and Legion Baseball teams, the Boys State education program (the Ladies Auxiliary sponsors the Girl’s State program), High School Oratorical Contests, Scouting sponsorship, Jr. Shooting Programs, and they donate thousands of dollars annually to assorted scholarship funds. Veterans serve thousands of hours each year in the Veterans Administration Voluntary Service Program, helping other veterans who are patients in VA medical facilities, along with other Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation programs. We commonly do Flag etiquette education, Flag Retirement, and Color Guard Details. Veteran’s organizations work closely with the Family Support Groups of deployed soldiers, ship thousands of “CARE” packages to those deployed troops, and support programs to provide free telephone calling cards to soldiers overseas. Veterans continue their service to America in hundreds of ways, by still serving in their communities. Being realists, they can usually be counted on to be well informed on the issues, and they vote with our countries best interests in mind, rather than blindly following some half-baked political or economic theories.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
If you value your liberty, thank a veteran… you’ll find him around someplace, wherever a helping hand is needed.
Who...?
Howdy! I'm Robert "Bob" Fogarty, your friendly Central Idaho backwoods redneck rabble rouser. On the personal front, I'm well over 60 years old, an ex-soldier (Cold War and Vietnam), and a recently retired career firefighter. I'm married, stand 5'10" and tip the scales at about 160 when in fighting trim. I smoke cigars, prefer Irish whiskey when I can afford it, and drive a thirty year old pick-up truck whenever I can coax it into running. A few of my "pet peeves" are hard core environuts (with the emphasis on the "nuts" part), left wing bleeding heart liberals, opinionated people (unless they agree with me), politically minded lawyers, and government bureaucracy. Generally I get along fine with individuals, but I also think that humanity as a group is probably the dumbest bunch of sheeple ever to come down the pike.
With my political interests, I suspect that everybody in the alphabet soup of government agencies considers me to be a threat of some sort or other, and they've probably got me on all kinds of watch lists. That's OK, I don't particularly like them either, and I really do think the government has gone totally nuts. Most of my writing is published in a local paper as a Op-Ed column. Our publisher lets me write about whatever strikes my fancy at the moment, then she's brave enough to print it.
If you don't particularly care for my opinion, ignore me and I'll happily ignore you. If 'ya like my stuff however, that's wonderful, and compliments are always accepted with gentlemanly grace.
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