From: Jess Minton (pd.minton@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Mon Nov 11 2002 - 19:41:15 PST
Thank you all who took your green vehicles in honor of these great men and
women...
>What is a Vet.............
>
>He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating
>two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run
>out of fuel.
>
>He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than a fence post, whose overgrown
>frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by
>four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
>
>She is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing
>every night for A solid year in Da Nang.
>
>He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't
>come back AT ALL.
>
>He is the Parris Island drill instructor who has never seen combat
>- but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks
>and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
>
>He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals
>with a prosthetic hand.
>
>He is the career Quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him
>by, but keeps the supply lines full.
>
>He is the three Anonymous Heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose
>presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the
>memory of all anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on
>the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
>
>He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and
>aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes
>all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the
>nightmares come.
>
>He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who
>offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country,
>and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
>
>He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is
>nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest,
>greatest nation ever known.
>
>So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just
>lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most
>cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or
>were awarded.
>
>Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU."
>
>It's the Veteran, not the reporter, Who gave us our freedom of the press.
>
>It's the Veteran, not the poet, Who gave us our freedom of speech.
>
>It's the Veteran, not the campus organizer, Who gave us our freedom to
>demonstrate.
>
>It's the Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and Marine, Who salutes the Flag, Who
>serves others with respect for the Flag, And whose coffin is draped by the
>Flag, Who allows the protester to burn the Flag.
>When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our
>ground troops in Afghanistan.
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