Thanks Veterans

Since it is Veteran's Day, I am going to recommend everyone clicks on this youtube link  and listen to this Bruce Springsteen song while you read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkyhMLFDzr0

 It's called "Shut Out the Light" and it was inspired by the book "Born on the 4th of July" by Ron Kovic.  Bruce met Mr. Kovic in a hotel in the 1970's, apparently.  If you haven't you should read "Born on the 4th of July".  It is very good.  The movie was OK, but I read it first and had a hard time visualizing Mr. Kovic as Tom Cruise!  The song is about a Vietnam veteran coming home and returning the his regular life.  He sees a woman from his past, gets his car out of the garage with his brother, and thinks about working at his old job again.  Through it all, he is plagued with insomnia and nightmares and feels alone.  It is a good song and not preachy or hippy-ish like some war songs.  I have always felt impacted by the first verse where the returning veteran exits the plane to an empty blacktop and gets a taxi without a crowd to welcome him home.

It is Veteran's Day, as everyone knows, and I went to my job and had a normal day like many others.  (No more days off!  Ahh, the life of a public school/university student!)  I'm kind of dissapointed that a limited commercial showing of "Saving Private Ryan" isn't on TV.  It seems like it gets played around Memorial Day and Veteran's Day and I love that movie, regardless of the violence. 

Some families are filled with Veterans and I can't say the same about my own.  My Granpda Herald  was a veteran of WWII, but it ended soon after he enlisted.  My uncle Steve was in the Navy, although it wasn't during a time of conflict.  On my dad's side, the men missed the major wars by a few years.  My dad was 15 turning 16 when U.S. involvment in Vietnam ended.  My grandpa was around that age when WWII ended and his father turned 18 just as WWI ended.  I can imagine how they might have been different and how all of our lives might have been different if they had been a few years older.  I can't imagine worrying about turning 18 as I'm sure many young men did.  I was about to write that I can't imagine growing up with a war always going on but I guess when I think about it the Gulf War in 1990-91 had it's effect on my family, although not in a military context and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan have been going on for almost 10 years. 

Thank you to all the Vets out there for your sacrifices!  I saw a sad news story a few months ago that shared the statistic in the current wars being fought by American's more veterans have died by their own hand as a result of depression and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome than have died in combat.  That is really upsetting and I hope anyone out there feeling that way is able to get the help they need. 

This is the only old photo I have of a veteran in my family.  He is my great uncle (I'm embarassed to say I don't know which one, but it is either Kenneth, Orvis, or Jimmy!) and my grandma Dorothy is the young girl in the front.  She had four brothers and I believe that three of them were in WWII.  The fourth was younger than she was so he was too young.  Several of my mom's uncles fought in Vietnam and one died in the early days of the conflict but besides him they all returned unharmed (at least physically).   I'm not sure about Justin's family's history, but I believe his uncle served in Vietnam.  He will correct me if I'm wrong.