Happy #ArmedForcesDay to those who answered the call to serve. We thank you today & everyday. http://t.co/KuIue9CpWG pic.twitter.com/dU06JKygMC
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) May 16, 2015
Happy #ArmedForcesDay to those who answered the call to serve. We thank you today & everyday. http://t.co/KuIue9CpWG pic.twitter.com/dU06JKygMC
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) May 16, 2015
12 comments:
Thank you for your service to our country.
Thank you, Lem for reminding people.
Thanks, guys and gals. I wish we took better care of what you provide, but that's on the rest of us. You rock!
Not serving in the military is one of my biggest regrets, especially when I consider what I did instead during my youth.
Not serving in the military is one of my greatest chuffs. Boy Scouts was enough for me, thank you very much. I hate marching and despise being bossed around. I would not thrive. My own personality would do me in at the early stages. My own dad recognized, military is not for me and advised against it. And not just regular advise against it, strongly advised against it. I avoided boot camp. Where they would have killed me certainly. Even though all those obstical obstickle obtackle rough and tumble courses with tricky things all along the way are a lot of FUN. We had those at schools, rudimentary American Ninja type setups to challenge and I did very well at all those things. It's being bossed around by someone who is stupid that takes all the fun out of it. Lining up, marching. Dispensing with personality. I cannot be bossed around by a stupid person. And that's it. And I avoided every asshole in the military and the place is FILLED with them, and that whole rigid class system they ritualize. I avoided uniforms. Ugh. All that ritual. I avoided all that.
And now lemme just say, I would say this directly to Dad were here after I gave him my explosive fig Newtons and his mouth is still stunned with amazement, "Let's see, you have Veteran's Day and you have Memorial Day, and we like them because we get to fly flags, and so 4th of July too is militaristic and fun the same way. And now what? Armed Services Day? And you get another whole day regarding yourself, like a birthday, and you weren't even armed?"
Then I'd brace myself POW for the rebuttal.
One of the main regrets I have about not serving is I missed an opportunity to leave my comfort zone, and not have an escape route other than pushing through and doing it. My young adulthood was all comfort zone, little challenge and one hand on the exit door at all times. I needed to face that down. I don't wish I just joined up. I wish I served in combat. I also wish I had had children, but in the same way I say it in hindsight knowing the hard work would be behind me now. I wish I was already through it, not just going into it. I still don't have the courage to start into either.
Thanks military!
Gay patriot
Thank you, Lem, for reminding people. Bagoh20, there is an old adage among veterans that everybody has to be some where...armies do not march without support, including civilian. Even if you did not realize your role, you had one...and you did not interfere as so many did.
That said, what you said about a challenge and pushing through it is all very true...and that is why we have days like today. I was never a "grunt" or "airborne" infantry (I was Ordnance) and I admire the various infantry, Soldier & Marine, the most of all for their time on the point of the spear. I did my part, but they did the most, truly in a place where there is no backing out, at least not alive. God bless them all, every last one, in the infantry.
And for the end of this day, here is a salute to AllenS ... an airborne infantry man. Like Marines, they are never "ex" or "former" anything, remaining airborne infantry to the end of their time.
One more thing Bagoh20 ...based upon the history of your travails with surgical procedures, I'd say your courage is without peer.
That said, some of the fantastic surgical procedures available today evolved from the forward medical units and Evac hospitals of my time in uniform. At one point it was an Evac hospital that put the left side of my skull back together, perfectly...both eyes fully functional and not a single problem for over 45 years now...a long long way from the mess I had with one eye ball hanging down like a marble on a string and crushed bones all around & above it. Those young doctors were magnificent and I love them all to this day....and the techniques they developed in the process.
I should mention that in the Evac hospital I was in we were in quonset huts and had large furry critters scampering about daily and nightly...we gave them all names...they made us happy to be alive you might say. The crummy conditions did not deter the "evac" methods developed back then, nor the skills of the men and women who saved many lives.
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