Yes, November 11 is the day designated by Congress to honor our war veterans. And while it is a "shopping" day with loads of sales, I recall Veterans' Day when I was a child.
First of all, it was definitely a day off from school. In fact, November of each year was a holiday month. We had election day off (every year), Veterans' Day (November 11), the State of New Jersey Teacher's conference (two days, Thursday and Friday early in the month), and then Thanksgiving and the day after. So, in November we had six days off.
I don't recall how much my mom and dad enjoyed having us all home from school, but I never got the idea that mom wanted us in school and was happy when we were home and happy when we were in school.
On Veterans' Day, in the morning, daddy and I would walk over to the VFW Hall and they had a ceremony there to honor the vets, which I ENDURED -- I had to stand still while the ceremony took place, which if I recall corrected was a bunch of boring speeches, and it ended with taps.
My husband is a vet. He was in the Army during the Viet Nam war era. We were blessed that the only action he saw was on the New York City subway and not in SE Asia, but we wonder sometimes whether what our vets and anyone who wore a uniform in the late 60s endured wasn't like being in a war zone.
I can't imagine what our men went through in SE Asia. I can't imagine the suffering of the POWs. I only know from experience what the uniformed men suffered at the hands of the men and women of this country who opposed a war in a far off country -- a war which was to keep communism at bay, a war which most of the country opposed, and in that opposition turned on our men in this country, when they were at HOME, and defiled them and abused them, both physically and with their mouths.
We need to thank God for the safety he has given our friends and family who have returned from our wars, and thank God for their willingness to keep us safe and preserve what we have fought so hard to have -- freedom as outlined in our Constitution.
Enough flag-waving for today, I suppose. But I feel strongly about this and could go on and on and on about it.
ttfn
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2 comments:
Did Alan ever get comments during that time from protestors and stuff? Even though he wasn't in Vietnam, he was in the service during that time and I wondered if he ever got attacked for being a part of the military during that time.
After a few episodes in New York City it was decided that personnel assigned to the various bases in that area were not to wear their uniforms off base. So, he would get on the subway as a civilian, and put on his uniform when he got to "work." So, no, he did not experience anything personally.
His brother, Dan, was actually assigned to Viet Nam in communications and was on the front lines, but came home unscathed (physically). I say that because we will never know how that war affected any of them mentally.
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