November Thanks – Celebrating Veterans Day

I don’t know if November became a month to be thankful due to the Thanksgiving holiday but the month is full of reasons for which to be thankful. National Authors’ Day, America Recycles Day, National Men Make Dinner Day (totally getting behind that one!), to name just a few I found on National Day Calendar.com.

Today of course is Veterans Day and we all have much to be thankful for because of the Veterans and current military members serving overseas and at home to ensure our liberties and way of life. I am a former military wife and know the sacrifices military personnel and their families make. It is a wonderful life in the sense that you are part of an extremely welcoming and vital community filled with people you can count on to do just about anything for you – with little to no questions asked. I love the people we met along our journeys to various bases and I love the experiences my children had while they transitioned from various homes. We had each other and a ready-made extended family where ever we were sent.

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”

Maya Angelou

We owe so much to active military members – they leave their family for extended periods of time, they are willing to go in harm’s way to accomplish their mission and aside from wanting and needing the welcome embrace of their family when they return, they really just want to go about their business and don’t feel heroic about their service. I so admire that sense of duty. As in all professions and walks of life, there are exceptions but those should not distract from the honor and integrity of the majority.

Being in the military is serious business sometimes but we thought we would leave you with some military humor as we ascribe to the benefits of humor in all things (thanks for Reader’s Digest for the following jokes).

 

Veterans Day_4My father was transferred to a new Navy base when I was four, so my parents quizzed me about our address. After I recited it perfectly, the test continued.

“City?” they asked.

“Memphis,” I answered.

“State?”

“Tennessee.”

“Country?”

“ ’Tis of thee.”

         Jennifer Kirksey, Freedom, California
SVeterans Day_4ecret Information: While standing watch in the Coast Guard station in Juneau, Alaska, I got a call from the Navy in the nearby city of Adak. They had lost contact with one of their planes, and they needed the Coast Guard to send an aircraft to go find it. I asked the man where the Navy aircraft had last been spotted so we would know where to search.

“I can’t tell you,” the Navy man said. “That’s classified.”

 

Veterans Day_2

Veterans Day_4Time Confusion: My wife, Dolores, never quite got the hang of the 24-hour military clock. One day she called the orderly room and asked to speak with me. The person who answered told her to call me at the extension in the band rehearsal hall. “He can be reached at 4700, ma’am,” the soldier advised.

With a sigh of exasperation, my wife responded, “And just what time is that?”

 

Veterans Day_4You Are What You Are: During basic training, our drill sergeant asked for a show of hands of all Jewish personnel. Six of us tentatively raised our hands. Much to our relief, we were given the day off for Rosh Hashanah.

A few days later in anticipation of Yom Kippur, the drill sergeant again asked for all Jewish personnel to ID themselves. This time, every soldier raised his hand. “Only the personnel who were Jewish last week can be Jewish this week,” declared the sergeant.

 

Veterans Day_3
P.S. – Today is also National Sundae Day so if you can, celebrate a Veteran you know and love by taking them out for a Sundae or having one in their honor. However you honor them, they do deserve our Thanks!

0 Comments

  1. Great post. I like the light side of it too. I love our country and am thankful to all who help keep us safe and most of all free. The following is my tribute to all who served and are serving.

    A Thought for the Holiday’s By: Patriicia Kruck Salamone

    FREEDOM

    They go by air and by sea to a foreign land

    The heat and the dust burns their skin

    They go not to fight but to lend a hand

    In their hearts they carry freedom on their shoulders

    They carry weapons in their eyes you can see honor

    They leave behind their wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters,

    Aunts, uncles, cousins, girlfriends, boyfriends, the safety of their home, their jobs, home

    cooked meals, holidays with their family and friends, seeing the birth of their children.

    They follow in the foot steps of their ancestors before them, many will not return, but

    they will persevere and in the end their honor and bravery, and the freedom they carry in

    their hearts will rise up. The ones that have gone before them and have not returned are

    there beside them shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart reminding them that freedom is not

    free. So this holiday season when you are celebrating with family and friends doing the

    things you are free to do, in your heart honor the men and women who have

    made that possible for you.

    1. What a lovely and heartfelt tribute Patricia! Thanks so very much for sharing with us here! Those last few lines are good ones to have in sight to help remind us.

  2. “Country?” “Tis of thee.” Now that’s priceless. Dad served 21 years in the Air Force … proudest time I can remember. I tear up thinking about what he sacrificed for us and our country. It’s a special holiday around our house.

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