Thank You, to all the veterans and their family's past and present for the sacrifices you make for this great country
THANK YOU to all of the past & present members of the armed services out there, a HUGE thank you to their FAMILIES who keep the house running, the kids in school, the lawn mowed, etc. while the other half is deployed or has duty all night/weekend. Our part of the US is well stocked with military families and I see on a daily basis how difficult that it can be for the families of the deployed. What REALLY made me appreciate them was when our company had a few of us ride the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) for a few weeks out of Everett WA down to San Diego CA and then to Honolulu HI a few years ago. By the time that we arrived in Honolulu (after only about 2-1/2 weeks on their 6 - 7 month deployment) I was READY to come back home and the second phone call that I made after checking in to the hotel and calling my wife was to the airline to see how soon I could get on a plane to head back home!!! Everyone thought that I was crazy... "You're in HAWAII!!! Stay there a few days and enjoy it!!!" But after working 12 hour days alongside the crew, eating relatively bland food in a cafeteria environment that makes my high school cafeteria seem like the Sheraton, sleeping in the top bunk of a 3-high "rack" right under some AFFF and Firemain piping (so that I couldn't sit upright anyway), having the crew change shifts every 2 hours and making noise in our 100+ man bunkroom, all of my worldly possessions in a locker and in a drawer under my (thin) mattress, GQ drills at all hours.... Yeah, I wanted to sleep in my own bed and eat my own food and walk around in the gr*** in my yard BADLY! I've worked on plenty of ships before that, and since, but LIVING on the ship for almost three weeks really woke me up to the life of a sailor!!! You guys & gals rock!!! THANK YOU just doesn't seem like enough to say.
From an old bubblehead who rode nuc submarines in the 60s, A Well Done to all Veterans on this special day! Did you know right now only 0.75%, less than one percent, of the people in the US are serving in the Armed Forces? We hear a lot about the "1%" and the "99%" but damn little about the 0.75% that are putting their lives on the line for everyone else. A big shout out to LCPL Shawn Heiman (my grandson) doing his second tour of Afghanistan who was just medivaced to Camp Leatherneck. Get better Shawn, we are all rooting for you!!! His other grandpa was a marine, his dad is full time Air Guard and my son was Navy too like his old man. We believe you have to participate, not spectate!
Thanks I'm a wounded veteran got shot in OIF I. Its good to see you guys that support those who put there life on the line for this great country. I also want to say thanks to my brothers in arms who are still out there putting their lives on the line so we can stay free.
I wrote this a few years ago, after I bought a red poppy from an old man in front of Target dept store . What do I see when I stop to buy a poppy from an old man? The dogs of war were howling while battles raged in foreign lands far across the sea from America. But that meant nothing to a 19 year old kid from Red Hook, Brooklyn. That young man was my Dad. Like so many others in the USA, that was a European war. People read about those events in the newspapers or heard news reports on the radio. But it wasn't Our war. But one calm December Sunday morning all was quiet, when a sneak attack changed all that on the Date that will Live in Infamy. Japanese treachery awakened a sleeping giant...a giant more ferocious than they could ever imagine. Now they forced Us into war to keep America free. We had to build an army fast to combat oppression and tyranny. Who would stand up and be counted? Well, my Dad was there with thousands and thousands of other American kids. They lined up to put their lives in harms way. These weren't sunshine Patriots who hid from the enemy. They faced the enemy of righteousness, eyeball to eyeball all over the world. These are those men I see. These are the boys of Pointe duHoc, Guadalc**** and Sicily, of Bougainville and Kaserine and the beaches of Normandy from the Battle of the Atlantic to the Battle of the Coral Sea. They fought and many, many died, because our Nation called. These are those men, I see. Where are those dashing young GIs who paid dearly for victory? They're all around us, they are our Fathers, Brothers, and Uncles. These are those men I see. We should learn well the terrible lesson they taught us, that Freedom Isn't Free. Who learned that lesson the hard way? These are those men I see. They are selling those red poppies. Each day we enjoy the fruits of their labor, with peace and prosperity in the land of the free... America. Give thanks to God, and then who else? Thank these men you see. I miss you every day Dad... Thank you.
at 1100 hours i had a moment of silence, for all those who gave all, and now i speak out for all the others who served this great country THANK YOU. usn 79-82
About three years ago I was in Fairoaks just Nth of Sacramento it was vets day and I went to a display in honour of vets nice cars next to a vets graveyard . They were handing our small flags every grave had a flag on it I still have one of those flags on my desk in front of me that day will always be on my mind I am in New Zealand
I was amazed to find out this year the very small percent of the U.S. population that is actually a veteran. When I was younger it seemed like everybody I knew was a veteran. Thank you for your service all veterans. U.S.A.F. 1954-1958.
DD 214 and DD256 all vets know what these mean.... I have mine in frames and hanging above my shop desk.....3 other numbers that the SEA vets will know from the wall are 57,709 then 58,044 and last I saw was 58.272
The Jalopy Journal
