Friday, November 10, 2006

Happy Veteran's Day

Today I went to the local park. They have a vets memorial there. It's beautiful, there is an eternal flame with marble memorials for each of the wars. This is where the Veterans Day ceremony was. To start things off there was a military plane flyover. Wow. I commented to the lady sitting by me that it always gave me chills to watch the flyovers. She told me that she was just thinking that those were WW2 planes and we had won the war with those planes. She went on to say how our planes are so high tech today and it's sad that we're losing this war. WHAT???? OK what's a Tanker Brothers/contactright fan to do but politely correct her. So I told her that we are NOT losing this war. I went on to say that I talk to our troops. I read their blogs. I told her that the media would like us to believe that we are losing the war but we are not. I told her that I don't even bother to watch the news anymore. I get my news straight from the source. I told her about MG not taking one assignment so he could go back to Iraq. And how CT was there too for the second time. How many soldiers there are that had been there and were willing to go back. The injured soldiers I've heard say they just want to go back to their units still in Iraq. If we are losing this war why would they want to go back? Who wants to fight a losing battle? I told her about the pictures of the Iraqi children posing with our soldiers smiling great big smiles. She commented on how children aren't like adults, that you see what is really in their thoughts when you look at them. She apologized for being so negative. I told her that I understood, it was all the news media chose to show us. And so if that's all we hear we will believe that. She thanked me for telling her all this.

After the ceremony I thanked some of the vets that were there. One AF guy told me that he retired after Desert Storm. I told him my brother just retired a few years ago from the AF. I told him that my brother had been in Oman during Desert Storm. He told me he had lost his entire squad while he was there. :( I told him how sorry I was to hear that. After talking to him I went on to sign a card for a guy who was recently wounded from this town. Then there was a Viet Nam Vet who had a picture album he was sharing I listened to his story. He recommended a movie "Hearts and Minds". I thanked a lady who was a WW2 vet. I told her I was grateful for her service to our country. I told her how I was so proud of our great countries military, past and present.

Happy Veterans Day to all the vets out there. Thank you so very much for your service.

No comments: