Again is a day to remember our soldiers. Thank goodness for patriotic holidays like Veteran's Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day, or truthfully, they might be forgotten altogether. My family is replete with veterans, some who died protecting and serving without ever having the chance to raise their own families. Holding my precious babes in my arms and knowing they are mine drives home the complete and utter sacrifice of our country's soldiers.
To quote the timeless words of the hymn, Jesus of Nazareth...
Bruised, broken, torn for us
on Calvary's Hill.
Thy suffering born for us
Lives with us still.
Every day is Veteran's Day in a military family. I remember when my father, who enlisted in the Air Force to join in the Vietnam Conflict in 1971, saw his first official war. He had seen plenty of conflict and perhaps some bloodshed, and he worked a very dangerous job, dropping tanks out of the back of airplanes. He was the man who shoved them out the back door. One false move and he was going down with them. It was 1992 and my dad's tour of duty was close to an end, but not before he served in the first Iraq War. I was naive and in college and having been sheltered quite well hadn't had these very deep thoughts yet. And I was watching a movie, around Veteran's Day, with my bohemian boyfriend. And the movie depicted soldiers in a bomber in combat. All of a sudden I was freaking out and my boyfriend didn't know what was going on. I said "what if that's my dad?" I knew that was a Hollywood depiction of war, and I had this terrible awareness for the first time that my dad was facing grave danger when he left us.
With the Iraqi Conflict dragging on in its unpopularity, I hope everyone will remember their soldiers and say a prayer for them and their families, so that they might have the same joy I experience with my own children now.
Click Here to Read My Essay "Why I Stand For the American Flag"
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