[rollei_list] Re: Veterans' Day/Armistice Day/Remembrance Day
- From: Don Williams <dwilli10@xxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:27:19 -0600
At 03:52 PM 11/11/2008, Marc Small you wrote, in part:
In any event, I hope that all will honor this day for what it means,
a memorial to those who spent so much of themselves in wars. I am
not suggesting that wars are logical or that war is a desirable part
of life but, as has been noted, (Aescylus, perhaps? Daniel probably
can pin the citation down.), "only the dead have seen the end of war".
Marc, very good post and I applaud your post and your military
associations. My wife's father was a Marine Corps fighter pilot and
was involved in WW II and some subsequent scientific support
missions. He was also on ready status during the Cuban crises- I
hope we don't have another one coming up. There are indeed rumblings
that Russia (or whatever they are called these days) has some intent
to link back up with Cuba, including the notion of putting
nuclear-carrying bombers there.
As for me, I served on a ship in the navy, just at the end of the
Korean war, as part of my NROTC commitment. I was never shot at,
never in harms way (well that's not quite true, I almost got our
destroyer sliced in two by a Carrier during a radar blackout
exercise, but the carrier saw us and turned her deck lights on. What
a sight, I could see the bow and right down the flight deck! No one
ever said a word about that). We used to do what they called
"Formosa Patrol", which was intended to tell the Chinese that we
would side with the then Formosa.
In any case I take advantage of the VA hospital system and will
probably continue to do so because my co-pay for meds is so high with
the other program I am in. I do, however, feel sort of guilty
whenever I go there because there are so many folks with missing
limbs, or in seriously bad mental states. Whenever I mention this to
the docs or other patients, they say I served and should therefore be
served in return, so I continue to go.
The good thing is that the VA hospitals have created a special
emotional support group for the guys who have served in Iraq.
Go in peace,
DAW
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