What is a Veteran?

[Raggedy Ann]

What is a Veteran?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking.

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 five wooden planks, 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 - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years 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 Quantico 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.

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 the 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 is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag."

[covan]

Raggedy,

Never heard of a Marine Corps chaplain. Is this really a true attribution or just another urban legend that we wish was true?

[Raggedy Ann]

There, now is it better? I posted it because it was a nice poem about who a veteran is. Not the validity of is there or isn't there a Marine Corps chaplain.

Raggedy Ann

[covan]

Raggedy,

The Internet is the source of a great deal of great information but also the source of much misinformation or information that is copyrighted and stolen from legitimate authors.

As an author I want my work to be acknowledged and I have found evidence where my writings have been stolen, yes, stolen wholesale from the Internet without acknowledgment. When I have tried to contact the offending party I am ignored.

Truthfully, I am sick of folks ripping off my research and hard work.

I would expect you and others to do a little bit of research before you foreword BS or unattributed poems, prose, tidbits to any list.

Unattributed writings just waste my time and contribute to the increasing inaccuracies evident on the Internet.

The Internet . . . perhaps one of the worst inventions of Al Gore.

You seem to be one of those who rip off the writings of others without attribution.

[Raggedy Ann]

Covan

I think you are being a little harsh with me. I just posted a poem. Didn't try to rip it off anyone. If there had been an address for me to contact the author I would have done so before posting the poem. I do try to research before posting. I think credit should go to the author. There was just the poem and Father O'Brien's name. I am the wife of a military person and I enjoy this site. I come to this site to read interesting articles, laugh at the humor, and cry at the touching poems and stories. I post for the same reason, hoping someone might get a laugh out of a joke or be moved by a poem or story. If I touched a sensitive nerve with you I apologize.

Raggedy Ann

[covan]

Raggedy,

I admit I am sensitive to accuracy. No apology necessary.

I only ask that folks (not only you) check their facts before they post. If they are reprinting previously printed stories please provide attribution.

I thank you for your interest in raising the level of interest of all of our veterans.

[WateringHole]

covan......It looks to me you should be apologizing to raggady ann instead of her apologizing to you.
She pasted something over here with the intentions some veterans would appreciate reading. Whoever posted that on the internet already knew in advance there would be a possibility of somebody cutting and pasting it on another web site.

Have to agree with WH.

Thanks Raggedy, your posts are greatly appriciated!!

[covan]

WateringHole,

I respectfully disagree. Why would I, or should I apologize? If she has permission to republish her poems, prose, etc. I see no problem, but rarely, if ever is there an attribution. Why would anyone read something and think the Marines had chaplains?

The information I have mentioned as posting was clearly marked "copyright" yet it was reprinted without my permission.

I could care less about someone's "intentions some veterans would appreciate reading." I want the attribution, nothing less. I was very offended that someone would steal my time, money and research and post it as their own.

I do not post on the Internet thinking I will be knowingly ripped off. It sucks, especially when it is copyrighted. If I can identify the miscreant and do not get the material removed I will take legal action.

A simple case of copyright.

[WateringHole]

Thanks Doc.2/47

Must have been a medic in VIetnam. Saw many of those Combat Medical Badges like you have displayed when I was in Alaska. Was assigned to a medical battalion.