Veterans Day

This week we recognize and honor all Veterans. I should start off by saying that I am not a veteran, and I wish everyday that I was. I have enormous admiration for those that are. You are a truly amazing group of gifted, compassionate individuals that protect our freedom and our way of life every single day, both at home and overseas. I am grateful to you.

It has always been a great honor to be a Veteran, and it will always be. Vets do things, see things, and go places that most of us do not, and could not. It's been that way from the Revolutionary War,to the War On Terror. Veterans dedicate their precious lives to protecting our freedom, and freedom around the world. That's just what they do.

My father was a WWII Veteran. He graduated from Mansfield High School and went to Duke University on a full-ride football scholarship. After Pearl Harbor he left college and enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a tail-gunner on a B-25 Bomber in the South Pacific until the war ended. He then was in occupied Japan for another year. He had three older brothers too, Hank, John and Joe, all in WWII at the same time and all came home at wars end healthy. Amazing.

You would think after all these centuries, that every country on earth would want to be free, live free, want free societies, and yearn to flourish as other nations have. But there are still some that don't. So Veterans have always been there to protect us from them. What soldiers do, and what Veterans have always done is sacrifice everything for us. Time from home, their way of life...and too often ..their own life. All in the name of being free.

If you really stop to think about history, the only thing that stands, and has stood between being free and not being free world-wide, are our soldiers and veterans. No one else is the history of the world has carried such a responsibility. They ensure that the people that cherish freedom and live to be free, are free.

Honoring Veterans one day a year is symbolic and nice, but not nearly enough. I always have to say thanks, when I see a soldier or veteran in uniform. It's just a natural reflex for me, and I'm glad I have that trait. I can't begin to understand their dedication, and sacrifice to our nation, but I'm eternally thankful that they have it.

Veterans and Soldiers are unbelievable people. Men and woman, young and old, that have given more than the rest of us. And they did it all, not because it was their job, I think that's to simple. They did it because they had something way down deep within their collective souls, that made them uniquely special to give wholeheartedly to a cause that was infinitely bigger than themselves. I cannot thank you all enough.

It's Veterans Day 2008. Thank a Vet today if you can. And sometime today, in a quiet moment alone take a few minutes to be thankful, and remember ... all of those....who gave theirs...so we could have ours.