Off The BeanVine Veteran's Day Evening edition 11 11 04
Since 11-14-04
Off The BeanVine Veteran's Day Evening edition 11 11 04
Since 11-14-04
Greetings
11 11 04
At the close of the day I retire to my home.
Many years ago at the close of my day I went to my bunk and prayed I would get
through tomorrow. Many of us have been there whether sleeping in a hole in the
ground or in a hospital bed, we prayed to have tomorrow. It has always been so
for soldiers and sailors who take the fight to the enemy wherever he may be
found. We seek a place and a moment of peace before battle to calm our minds and
souls, to help give us strength and ability to see us through in our duty.
Simple prayers from simple soldiers.
Today we have rendered honors to our veterans just as they have rendered our
freedom to us. We speak of heroes and campaigns, great bloody battles, turning
points that shifted the fate of our nation and our world and we are honored and
comforted that such soldiers have preserved us. That these men stood forward so
many times and in so many places has brought us a nation unequaled in the globe.
But let us not forget tonight to remember the simple soldiers as well as the
heroes, the small skirmishes and encounters as well as the tide changing events.
Small and simple men who stood and assumed an awesome duty and performed as well
as champions are the meat and muscle of the strong arm of the military and we
should never forget it.
A simple soldier was frequently afraid or confused. Yet he worked through it.
A simple soldier was often overlooked and unappreciated. Yet he did his job.
A simple soldier mostly wanted to go home when this was over. Most of them did.
The celebration of Veteran's Day is a celebration of those who came home and
those that fight still more than an honorarium of our losses. We should look to
each other, we simple men who became simple soldiers and understand that the
fire of commitment and duty comes from this wellspring of America, simple men.
Men and women whose lives were interrupted and placed in danger and they serve.
Maybe they don't come home with a chest full of medals but they serve. They
carry the rifles as Privates and Corporals, they cook our meals, they bring us
ammunition or fuel or food. They drive tanks, humvees, jeeps, and aircraft and
do their jobs unnoticed and unsung.
They have shivered in a foxhole in Korea cursing the night and praying for dawn
dreading the shrilling of a bugle or whistle in the dark. They have laid in a
wet foxhole in Guadalcanal trying to tell what sounds in the dark are the jungle
and what sounds are the Japanese. They sat in a lonely ambush along a trail in
Vietnam night after night with no sign of the enemy except the long strain of
being so watchful and quiet for so long. They have scanned the horizon with
binoculars seeking low flying enemy planes and manned the anti aircraft guns
when the Japanese got past the air CAP planes. Simple men in unsimple times,
soldiers.