How Do We Thank Our Veterans?

Veterans Day, 2009. Oregon State University.

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

Grandpa Lewis - what a handsome young guy!

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

My Papa looking at his WWII medals we found hidden in a closet. Who knows how long it had been since he laid eyes on them last. 

Except in parades, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking. 

What is a vet? 

They are the police officers who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel. 

Josh. Middle East deployment #5. 

She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Danang. 

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn't come back AT ALL. 

My friend Josh and his KC-10 crew, Middle East deployment.

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. 

Trey Escobar and his flight before a Middle East deployment.

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. 

My dear friend Noah, who although doesn't like to hear it... has survived so much. More than most. We're grateful he's home safe with his wife and soon-to-come baby!

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 remains unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep. 

Former Marine Corps General Conway. Marine Corps Ball. 2009.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, 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. 

Veterans Day, Oregon State University. 2009.

My friend Mike, deployment to Korea. 

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human beings. Women and men who offered some of life's most vital years in the service of their country, and who sacrificed their ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. 

Medal of Honor recipient, Gary Beikirch and his beautiful wife, Lolly.

They are a Soldier, Marine, Sailor or Airman, and also a savior and a sword against the darkness, and they are 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.

We did a Christmas gift-box drive for deployed troops a few years ago. A friend's elementary class wrote hundreds of thank you letters to soldiers. 

That's all many people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Marine Corps Ball. New York City, 2009. Medal of Honor recipient, Brian Thacker. 

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU". 

God Bless Our Veterans!

If you haven't seen this short video yet, I highly recommend it. A military veteran struggling with homelessness, addiction and poverty literally transforms in front of your eyes. Click here.