I hope this is not late.  I would like to thank all that have served & is serving in our arm forces.  May my gratitude and heartfelt thanks mean something to you!  Thanks!

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In general Veterans that were in battle think the Vets that weren't were lucky, but know that the lucky ones would have served no less honorably. I was an Assault Boat Coxswain who served from 1959 to 1963. Nothing happened during that period of history except the Cuban Blockade. I coxswained a LCVP. This is the Landing Craft that delivers troops to the beach. The only beach I landed on was located in Little Creek, Virginia near Norfolk.

I had a brother in law who served in Korea and friends that served in Nam. They both tell me I was lucky and I believe it!

They do however despise those that dodged the draft using phony deferral excuses and those who were related to big shots who shielded them by keeping them stateside. CCR's song "I ain't no fortunate one"  fits them well.

Unless you join or are drafted while the War is ongoing you really don't think you'll see battle but all who serve are ready and able to get it on.

I love the Vet.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if those who were committed  to send the troops to war  had the same  commitment  to Veteran's benefits. and medical care.

A lot of the Service Women and Men would gladly trade the medals for decent living conditions.

Question about Veterans Day.

Someone who served in the Armed Forces honorably, but never went to war, no matter how long they served, are they considered a veteran? Or is your definition of a veteran someone who served only during wartime.

Also, what do war time veterans think of veterans who served but never went to war?

thx!

America's oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, living his 100th year is former enlisted Aviation Chief Ordnanceman (ACOM), later wartime commissioned Lieutenant John W. Finn, USN (Ret.). He is also the last surviving Medal of Honor, "The Day of Infamy", Japanese Attack on the Hawaiian Islands, Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, 7 December 1941.

'Navy Centenarian Sailor', 103 year old, former enlisted Aviation Chief Radioman (ACRM, Combat Aircrewman), later wartime commissioned Chief Warrant Officer Julio 'Jay' Ereneta, U. S. Navy (Ret.) is a thirty year career veteran of World War One and World War Two. He first flew aircrewman in August 1922; flew rearseat radioman/gunner in the 1920s/1930s air squadrons of the Navy's first aircraft carriers, USS LANGLEY (CV-1) and USS LEXINGTON (CV-2).

Visit my photo album tribute to these veteran shipmates:

http://news.webshots.com/album/141695570BONFYl

http://news.webshots.com/album/123286873BFAAiq

San Diego, California

The author doesn't realize it, but he's done a good job of describing what it feels like to be a veteran of the war in Vietnam.

The war we fought depended on where in Vietnam we operated.  It depended on when we were there and it depended on what our occupational specialties were.  We had combat troops in country for eight years and advisers there for longer.

A boy who was eleven when the first Marines landed at Da Nang in 1965 could have landed in country and served a full tour before the last combat troops left in 1973.  A Saigon Embassy Marine who was there for the fall of Saigon could have been as young as nine in April of 1965.

Even though, there were a lot of us veterans around back in the day, most of us tried our best to blend in with the rest of our generation and know well that strange look that non-veterans give when they learn that you're a veteran of an unpopular war.  It's like they are trying to remember everything they've said about the war and those that have fought it since the day they first met you, or worse.

Really, all veterans of war have certain things in common, regardless of their war or their era.  Sometimes it happens that veterans of two different wars might have more in common than two veterans of the same war.

War veterans feel a bond and as the years go by that bond becomes stronger, the differences diminish, and that bond is felt without even sharing a word.  Sometimes, it's just a knowing look.

Happy Veterans' Day!

My grandfathers and great uncles on both sides of my family came to America from what is now Lebanon in 1903; most around the age of 7 or 8.  All of them joined the Army from 1917 to 1918 and served in France.  My maternal grandfather recited how he returned from the Great War (World War I) and received his Honorable discharge in one hand and his U.S. citizenship papers in the other.  He really didn’t expected that, but is was the highlight of his life.  He went on to serve in the National Guard as a rifle instructor.

My father and many uncles served in the Army in World War II from North Africa and Europe, to the Pacific War.  One of them was shot down and lost over Eastern Europe.  Three younger uncles served in the Air Force at various times during the Vietnam War, two retired from the Air Force.  My dad and the other uncles returned home, led successful lives and raised a lot of us.  My dad and all but two of my uncles are gone now; my dad buried at the National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina.

My wife served as a medical technician in the Air Force during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.  I served in the Navy submarine service, and later in western Iraq with the Defense Department.   We have two nephews who served in the Army and Marines with service in Iraq.  Both are out now and back in college.

As veterans, we thank our fellow vets, especially the younger OEF/OIF vets, and the other new young men and women who see a need to serve our country in these trying times.  Thank you all.

My father worked with a veteran of World War One. I heard them talking just after the end of World War Two on a day when I went with my father to his workplace. The friend's name was Mike. The subject was "the hardships of war". Mike began to talk about life in the trenches. He told of times when it rained for days and the bottom of the trenches were over ankle deep in mud and told about one time when he had been on duty for many days in such a situation. When he finally was able to go behind the lines for rest and recuperation, he began to peel the cloth tape from his lower leg and a good part of the skin came off with it. It scared him for a little while but it healed over.

  A friend of mine whose father was a marine in World War One talked with a buddy of his father who was beside his father on one occasion when they left the trenches to charge the Germans a few hundred yards away in their trenches. His father's friend heard the sound when a rifle bullet struck my friend's father in the stomach, and he said it sounded like hitting a watermelon with a bat. He just knew that my friend's father had to be dead. He wasn't. He lived and came home to run a service station and put my friend through college. My friend's father told him that when the war was over and he was being processed to be discharged he had a depression in his stomach that was almost as big as one's fist resulting from the surgery to repair his body after being hit with a high powered rifle. He was asked if he would like to put in for disability allowance and replied that, "hell no, he wasn't disabled, he could do anything that anybody else could do".

That's probably a little too damned tough, and most sensible people would have taken them up on the disability pay. But still, I'm a little sentimental about the courage that these men exhibited. We just can't seem to get rid of wars. Thanks to all who served.

Veteran’s Day in the United States:

16 Of The Best World War II Movies http://tubedirects.net/index.php?q=Veterans-Day-2008

highly recommend!

everyone should know!

Veteran’s Day in the United States:

16 Of The Best World War II Movies http://tubedirects.net/index.php?q=Veterans-Day-2008

highly recommend!

everyone should know!

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