Veterans Day, Part V

Posted By Deebow

"America is the country of freedom. We were the first to declare government exists to serve people; people do not exist to serve government. We were the first to proclaim all people are equal before the law. We were the first to say each individual has inalienable rights - the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of his happiness."

"There is no more precious possession than one's own life. But without political freedom, human life is empty. People cannot exist in any meaningful sense as slaves. The New Hampshire motto says it perfectly, "Live free or die."

Edwin A. Locke has an old piece that rings true regardless of the Veterans Day that it appears on.

A little while back, I was out on the Pakistani Border on a 2 week operation on this day.  It gave me a chance to reflect on what Veterans Day meant to me.

I looked around at all the men who were there in our ORP; some older (like me and my partner Captain Jack) who moved with more efficiency and and some of the young men from the 2-87 Infantry, 10th Mountain Division.  They were all smiling in one regard or another, and they seemed genuinely glad to be among friends (although, I am certain they all would have joined me had I invited them to enjoy brews and babes at Sandals in Jamaica)

We were all wet, cold, and sleep deprived; a trait that I thought at the time would place us in good company with the men at Valley Forge in those dark days of our own Revolution, the young dough boys in the winters of 1914-1917, our grandfathers in the 2/506 PIR at Bastogne.  But no one was there because they didn't want to be.  We all had volunteered to be there.   My drill instructors were right; misery truly does love company.  It all seems a little less so as we polished off our MREs, started our vehicles and got about the business that awaited us.

The Left seems to believe that somehow we have survived all this time to this point and now we no longer have a need for a military and that Veterans Day can now become an antiquated tradition for our grandfathers to celebrate.

I have news for them though; We are at the point in our country's history where they can minimize the sacrifices of greater men and women than themselves because no one has come to take their freedom.  Ask any conquered people subjected to the rule of tyrants and see how they feel about our veterans.

The rule of tyrants was what it was about when we started our Revolution; and we have made freedom one of our most sought after and desired exports for over 200 years now.

Days like the one I spent about 300 meters from the Pakistani border like that will forever be etched in my memory and I will not forget the faces of those young men that smiled their way through another dreary day filled with the distinct possibility of death.  I hope that as I advance in age, I will not lose those memories.

For those that have defended it, freedom has a taste that the protected will never know...

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Veterans Day, Part V

"America is the country of freedom. We were the first to declare government exists to serve people; people do not exist to serve government. We were the first to proclaim all people are equal before the law. We were the first to say each individual has inalienable rights - the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of his happiness."

"There is no more precious possession than one's own life. But without political freedom, human life is empty. People cannot exist in any meaningful sense as slaves. The New Hampshire motto says it perfectly, "Live free or die."

Edwin A. Locke has an old piece that rings true regardless of the Veterans Day that it appears on.

A little while back, I was out on the Pakistani Border on a 2 week operation on this day.  It gave me a chance to reflect on what Veterans Day meant to me.

I looked around at all the men who were there in our ORP; some older (like me and my partner Captain Jack) who moved with more efficiency and and some of the young men from the 2-87 Infantry, 10th Mountain Division.  They were all smiling in one regard or another, and they seemed genuinely glad to be among friends (although, I am certain they all would have joined me had I invited them to enjoy brews and babes at Sandals in Jamaica)

We were all wet, cold, and sleep deprived; a trait that I thought at the time would place us in good company with the men at Valley Forge in those dark days of our own Revolution, the young dough boys in the winters of 1914-1917, our grandfathers in the 2/506 PIR at Bastogne.  But no one was there because they didn't want to be.  We all had volunteered to be there.   My drill instructors were right; misery truly does love company.  It all seems a little less so as we polished off our MREs, started our vehicles and got about the business that awaited us.

The Left seems to believe that somehow we have survived all this time to this point and now we no longer have a need for a military and that Veterans Day can now become an antiquated tradition for our grandfathers to celebrate.

I have news for them though; We are at the point in our country's history where they can minimize the sacrifices of greater men and women than themselves because no one has come to take their freedom.  Ask any conquered people subjected to the rule of tyrants and see how they feel about our veterans.

The rule of tyrants was what it was about when we started our Revolution; and we have made freedom one of our most sought after and desired exports for over 200 years now.

Days like the one I spent about 300 meters from the Pakistani border like that will forever be etched in my memory and I will not forget the faces of those young men that smiled their way through another dreary day filled with the distinct possibility of death.  I hope that as I advance in age, I will not lose those memories.

For those that have defended it, freedom has a taste that the protected will never know...

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