Hope you all had a nice weekend.
On Saturday I attended a Veteran’s Appreciation Night put on by my local church fellowship and sponsored by local VFW posts. We had vets from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.
The program included the singing of the national anthem, a dinner, some light musical entertainment, a comedienne, a raffle, and the offer of hope found in Jesus Christ.
But the whole night started with the entrance. Every veteran who walked in the door was greeted with a reception line of volunteers from the church, who cheered, applauded, waved American flags and shook their hand as they walked a red carpet to the registration table, where they had their photo taken by a red, white and blue balloon arch, and then were escorted to their table by other volunteers.
As part of the greeting committee, I got to shake hands with many of the vets, but a highlight was shaking hands with a sprightly 101-year-old WWII veteran and thanking him for his service.
Do you realize it’s been 78 years since the end of World War II? According to US Department of Veterans Affairs, only 119,550 Americans who served in WWII are currently alive. Even the youngest enlisted men, knowing some snuck in at age 16 or 17, would be in their 90s now.
I was there with my wife to host, meaning that I would wait on the guests seated at my assigned table. As it turned out, only one vet and his wife sat at my table. Because there weren’t any other guests for that table, I was invited to have dinner with them so they weren’t stranded by themselves.
Denny (not his real name) was a Navy vet who had always wanted to serve in the armed forces. He enlisted before he graduated from high school, then spent 10 years in the service. He now works for the DOJ. I asked him if he was busy tracking “white supremacists” like me, and he laughed. No, that’s not what he does.
When I asked him how he got to the appreciation dinner, he said that his neighbor is also a veteran and had attended the dinner last year. It was so good, he said, that he kept badgering Denny to attend this year. I asked him if he ever attended an appreciation night like this and he said no.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ask him how he enjoyed the evening when it was all over; I was busy cleaning up with the rest of the volunteers when he and his wife left. I hope it was enjoyable for them.
The idea behind the event is to truly appreciate our vets. We live in polarized times, when our military is being wrecked by social experimentation, our war heroes are being “cancelled,” our past and present military engagements are being criticized, and our veterans have been abused by government incompetence.
We forget that our veterans are people who were asked or who volunteered to serve our country and often faced dreadful circumstances in which they had to engage in terrible acts that perhaps defeated our enemies, but that some carried home in their psyches.
To thank a 100-year-old man who served in our military is not to approve of what he did or didn’t do. I didn’t get to have a conversation with him, so I don’t know his rank or where he was deployed or what sort of experience he had. For all I know, he was a clerk in a general’s office in Topeka, Kansas.
My appreciation is to recognize that he performed a noble act, that he took on a role that put “country” before himself, that he put himself at risk on behalf of those who couldn’t. Many of our vets never made it home, having made the ultimate sacrifice. That could have been him, and I deeply appreciate the courage it took to expose himself to that risk on behalf of a country to which he pledged his loyalty.
A “country” isn’t some amorphous entity. A country is citizens like you and me. Every veteran who served in the military did so on behalf of the people who make up the country.
I’ve made it a personal commitment to thank our servicemen and women. While many of them aren’t looking for thanks, I can see that it’s meaningful to them when they are thanked.
I encourage you to thank a vet this Veteran’s Day, November 11.
