There is a bond, a oneness, that exists between those in certain endeavors or with certain shared experiences. This is true, with an exponent, of veterans.
I have been shot at twice in my life. Neither time was I in serious jeopardy. My father and my uncle were shot at a lot and were damned lucky to have survived. Dad served in the Pacific (New Guinea and the Philippines). Uncle Bob landed in Normandy on D-Day and was one of the 10% who survived through the end of the war. My burdens were trivial compared to theirs. Yet we share a common bond.
To all the brothers and sisters who served and are yet serving, know that you are loved and valued beyond the power of words to tell.
I offer these closing lines from John Ciardi's poem, Ulysses:
"I returned to the sea, and at the last mountain
I stood to remember, and the memory
could not live in the fact. I had grown old
in the wrong world. Penelope wove for nothing
her fabric and delay. I could not return.
I was woven to my dead men. In the dust
of the dead shore by the dead sea I lay down
and named their names who had matched lives with me,
and won. And they were all that I loved."
I have been shot at twice in my life. Neither time was I in serious jeopardy. My father and my uncle were shot at a lot and were damned lucky to have survived. Dad served in the Pacific (New Guinea and the Philippines). Uncle Bob landed in Normandy on D-Day and was one of the 10% who survived through the end of the war. My burdens were trivial compared to theirs. Yet we share a common bond.
To all the brothers and sisters who served and are yet serving, know that you are loved and valued beyond the power of words to tell.
I offer these closing lines from John Ciardi's poem, Ulysses:
"I returned to the sea, and at the last mountain
I stood to remember, and the memory
could not live in the fact. I had grown old
in the wrong world. Penelope wove for nothing
her fabric and delay. I could not return.
I was woven to my dead men. In the dust
of the dead shore by the dead sea I lay down
and named their names who had matched lives with me,
and won. And they were all that I loved."