Happy Veterans Day to all the men and women who have put their lives on the line to serve and protect us. I couldn't even begin to imagine the feeling of leaving your family behind, to be on foreign soil and doing things that wouldn't be the standard back home.
My poppy was a child of the 20s and a teen of the 30s. He never graduated high school because he worked in the coal mines to help bring money home for his family. He quickly enrolled in the military, as the majority did during that era. They say the men of WWII were from a different mold and I'm sure they were. As my poppy lived in a fox hole, walked the front lines, and stormed Omaha beach in Normandy. As a child, I rarely heard him speak of the war. But when he did, he constantly spoke of the fear he had when he ran across that sand, his boots sinking into the earth as bullets whizzed by his head. He often questioned why he made it to safety, when so many others did not.
My dad was drafted at 18 years old into Vietnam. He was a child of the 50s and a teen of the 60s. He proudly went to war to serve, as so many of his fellow brothers had done before him. He smiled as he waved goodbye to his loved ones, setting off to an adventure of the unknown. The stories I've heard from my dad, would make the biggest, baddest, man cry.
The one thing both my poppy and my dad had were scars, not the visual scars you can see on their bodies, however, I'm sure they have them too. But, scars on their souls. Those smiling boys left the states as naive, trusting people, only to return as someone else.
Sadly, that's the problem with War... You never come back the same. Every man and woman who ever interacted in some form of combat will always be changed forever.
With that, I'll always appreciate every soldier (past and present) and their eternal sacrifice to keep us safe.
Happy Veterans Day! This day is for you!
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