Remembering Veterans Today!

[Weedygarden]

I looked for a thread. There was one from 2022, but just for 2022.

Thank you all for your service!

My parents were both veterans. My mother signed up for the Nurses Corp when she signed up for nursing school. The war, WW II, was over when she graduated, but she served 3 months in Bellingham, Washington, maybe in a Veteran's hospital.

I've told this before. My dad landed on Utah Beach in France, the day after D-day when others landed on Omaha Beach and he came home after the war was over. He was in 5 different groups (I'm forgetting what it is called now!)

Both of my grandfathers were in the Army during WW I. One served in Europe, the other in China!

Remembering all of the sacrifices of life and time for so many people's freedom.

 

[Pearl]

There are many veterans here on HCL....THANK YOU!!

 

[Bacpacker]

My heartfelt thanks to all the Vets on here and around the country

 

[rice paddy daddy]

Thank you for being Americans worth fighting for.
There are a number of events going on in our area today. On Thursday the 9th my American Legion post in combination with the Air Force Junior ROTC at the high school put on the annual Veterans Appreciation Dinner that is free to all vets and their families.
I attended that, but today's ceremony at the town hall I skipped. My VFW post is selling pulled pork dinners with 100% of the proceeds being donated to Wreaths Across America, specifically earmarked for Jacksonville National Cemetery. I'll be headed into town shortly to pick up two, for the wife and I.
I did put my flag out when I got up this morning.

 

[Peanut]

 

[Tommyice]

@rice paddy daddy you brought a tear to my eye with your Thank You. That’s the highest praise a person can receive—being worth fighting for.

Thank you to our veterans, past, present and even our future ones. My dad served in the Navy during the Korean War but in the Atlantic and Caribbean on an ARG repair ship. Everywhere I take him people thank him for his service. His reply is “don’t thank me, thank my mother. I joined the Navy to get away from her.” Because he joined, he met my mother. I am thankful for many reasons.

 

[Weedygarden]

Thank you for being Americans worth fighting for.
There are a number of events going on in our area today. On Thursday the 9th my American Legion post in combination with the Air Force Junior ROTC at the high school put on the annual Veterans Appreciation Dinner that is free to all vets and their families.
I attended that, but today's ceremony at the town hall I skipped. My VFW post is selling pulled pork dinners with 100% of the proceeds being donated to Wreaths Across America, specifically earmarked for Jacksonville National Cemetery. I'll be headed into town shortly to pick up two, for the wife and I.
I did put my flag out when I got up this morning.

Thank YOU!

We used to buy poppies and wear them, but was it for Veteran's Day, or Memorial Day? I think the poppies signify the poppies in France?

"The wearing of poppies in honor of America's war dead is traditionally done on Memorial Day, not Veterans Day," the department said. "The practice of wearing of poppies takes its origin from the poem In Flanders Fields, written in 1915 by John McCrae."

 

[kenv1950]

Dad and his crew (hes in the middle)

 

[kd4ulw]

Veterans deserve more than one day of gratitude! A heartfelt ‘thanks’ for your service.

 

[rice paddy daddy]

It was an honor and a privilege to serve.
I was raised by parents who went thru the Great Depression and then World War Two.
I was taught duty, honor, country from a young age.
So when my time came, I went. Instead of running away to Canada or hiding behind the various deferments.

I’m glad I did. I made lifelong friends, real friends, guys willing to die for one another.
You won’t find that among civilians.

I am nothing special, and it actually hurts when people say I’m a hero. I’m not, never was. But I did serve with some.

 

[rice paddy daddy]

I just served three years and got out.
The Army wasn’t for me.

 

[user 4485]

To all the Veterans here.....

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

 

[backlash]

Every year I would call my friend on Veterans Day.
He is gone now and I miss our chats,
He was a decorated Army Special Forces soldier.
He did 3 tours in Vietnam.
He had some very difficult years after he got out.
He found working with other combat vets and helping them helped him.
He was buried in Arlington this past summer.
RIP Ron.
Thank you to all the other vets.

 

[Weedygarden]

Every year I would call my friend on Veterans Day.
He is gone now and I miss our chats,
He was a decorated Army Special Forces soldier.
He did 3 tours in Vietnam.
He had some very difficult years after he got out.
He found working with other combat vets and helping them helped him.
He was buried in Arlington this past summer.
RIP Ron.
Thank you to all the other vets.

Three tours is a lot. I would think that would be really hard mentally on anyone.

 

[Neb]

...
Thank you to all the other vets.

Right back at you.

I often feel guilty when being thanked for being a vet. As the son of a air force lifer I felt it was my duty to serve. My younger brother did the same but stuck around to retire from the Air Force.

(Our parents outfitted us with uniforms and training rifles when young. "Office" Christmas parties were held in missile sheds and air craft hangers. Thanksgiving feasts were at the mess hall with all the chocolate milk and ice cream we could consume.)

But my service was simply doing my job after taking the oath.

I salute others that served to preserve our constitutional republic.

Thank you!

Ben

 

[rice paddy daddy]

But my service was simply doing my job after taking the oath.


Ben

This, right here!!
We raised our right hands and became government property.
We went where we were told, and did what we were trained to do.

Duty, Honor, Country.

 

[Magus]

I'm not a Vet, but I was raised by them. I don't think any combat vet should ever have to pay income tax once service is done, and free med-care too. I would voluntarily pay extra taxes for that, but you know they'd never get it.

 

[Old Whatshisname]

I really wished I had gone for career; I enjoyed my time in the Navy. My qual boat was an old WWII Fleet-Class boat, the Drum (SS 476). Except for having to put in at Guantanamo in 1962, it was a great time.

Here she is, gone but not forgotten:

 

[rice paddy daddy]

 

[Magus]

I wonder if its possible to buy a submarine?

 

[Lenny]

Thanks everyone.
Navy Vietnam here. 1965-1969

 

[rice paddy daddy]

Thanks everyone.
Navy Vietnam here. 1965-1969

Welcome Home.

 

[rice paddy daddy]

When two Nam vets meet for the first time, they usually tell each other "Welcome Home".
We never got one, in fact our welcome was most often hostile.
So, we began to welcome each other home.

If you see a vet wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap, instead of thanking him or her for their service, look them in the eye and say Welcome Home. You'll make their day, trust me on that.

 

[Weedygarden]

When two Nam vets meet for the first time, they usually tell each other "Welcome Home".
We never got one, in fact our welcome was most often hostile.
So, we began to welcome each other home.

If you see a vet wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap, instead of thanking him or her for their service, look them in the eye and say Welcome Home. You'll make their day, trust me on that.

The way Vietnam vets were treated was pretty sad.

 

[Magus]

I grew up around Nam vets. they were still in the jungle and lived like it.
I used to do grocery runs for one, my bro Smitty. We'd sit on his mother's front porch and do shots of Mr. Boston vodka and he'd tell his stories, they always ended up being the same ones, but I didn't care. All the know-alls around said he was nothing but a cook, but Like they say on the internet, Pics or it didn't happen. Smitty had a scrapbook and photo album with him hanging out with a dude that looked like Carlos Hathcock and getting trained to make one hole in a head at 600 yards. he had all the FM-manuals too. funny thing a damn cook could quote the sniper manuals chapter and verse, he could take my M-1A and thread needles with it too. Cook my butt.
He'd always say:
I was in the FBI before I went to Nam. Fort Benning Idiots. LOL He didn't care what the local snubs said about him, he knew different, and if you knew him, you knew different too. I hope when it's time for me to go, I have half his guts. Smitty got done in by daily doses of Agent Orange, it finally caught up to him, that and chain smoking. they had to remove his tongue and whole lower jaw, when the doctor stepped away He jerked out his air tube and laid back and just left without a peep.

 

[Lenny]

Even when we were home or going through airports, people would call us baby killers but love the government that ordered us to go over there to kill people. The same people today are voting for Democrats. Psychologists were useless so the only cure was booze.

I'm on the Agent Orange registry because I got sprayed out at sea, less that five miles away from land. That's having generalized anxiety and probably other effects. I only found out about 7 or 8 years ago that I could get a compensation for it.

 

[Pearl]

Even when we were home or going through airports, people would call us baby killers but love the government that ordered us to go over there to kill people. The same people today are voting for Democrats. Psychologists were useless so the only cure was booze.

I'm on the Agent Orange registry because I got sprayed out at sea, less that five miles away from land. That's having generalized anxiety and probably other effects. I only found out about 7 or 8 years ago that I could get a compensation for it.

Look at all that time that passed!! Compensation should have come immediately, you should not have had to 'find out' about it! SO much money can be wasted by our government, our veterans should be well cared for, but never have been!!

 

[Caribou]

 

[Lenny]

Look at all that time that passed!! Compensation should have come immediately, you should not have had to 'find out' about it! SO much money can be wasted by our government, our veterans should be well cared for, but never have been!!

Thanks Pearl. I described my symptoms to psychologists for over 50 years, but they did nothing. When I found out about it from a primary care doctor a few years ago, she said "generalized anxiety". I looked that up on the internet and now I know, so I am able to understand it a lot better and deal with it, as well as share the information with others. The psychologists just wanted me to keep coming back and throwing money at them....JERKS!

For those of you who don't know, generalized anxiety is an anxiety that is always there, rather than an anxiety attack which comes and goes.

 

[Pearl]

Thanks Pearl. I described my symptoms to psychologists for over 50 years, but they did nothing. When I found out about it from a primary care doctor a few years ago, she said "generalized anxiety". I looked that up on the internet and now I know, so I am able to understand it a lot better and deal with it, as well as share the information with others. The psychologists just wanted me to keep coming back and throwing money at them....JERKS!

For those of you who don't know, generalized anxiety is an anxiety that is always there, rather than an anxiety attack which comes and goes.

Just knowing what you are dealing with has to help! I just cannot understand why /how the government can give free services to illegals and money to their personal interests ( Ukraine for example), but overlook our veterans!!!!