Veterans Day is the one day when both living and dead vets should be remembered and thanked. Those no longer with us deserve our thanks and thoughts. Those still with us, our thanks. The war to end all wars didn't work out. It didn't even work out on the 11th hour of the 11th month. Bad start for sure.
I always thank fellow vets but my mind goes to the vivid, endless crosses in the cemeteries in Europe. The acreage is massive.
They are maintained in spectacular condition by the US government.
Spectacular yes. Then a sadness hits me that those Crosses and Stars of David represent a once vibrant living individual. Most with families. Which I then switch to what is commonly known today as 'collateral' damage. Each symbol represents not one, but rather many changed by this death. The total number must be frightening.
I look along the VietNam Memorial and the 50,000 plus names becomes so much greater. Mothers, fathers, wives, brothers, sisters, children etc. A Gold Star Mother symbol in a window I have not seen in decades but there was a time when that 'collateral damage' symbol clearly focused on what the loss also really was, and to whom. It did not end with one single death.
My point is, I guess, that when you thank a vet tomorrow pause for a moment to think of the dead. Reflect still on how many of those 'collateral' individuals we should also remember.
I have another story of what happened to a family in Queens NY and the death in VietNam of one of their sons and the horror of that 'collateral' damage to a family which devastated 3 generations.
But that's for another time.
(The above was not meant as a slight against Veterans at all, merely to think of their families and their grief as well) cl
I always thank fellow vets but my mind goes to the vivid, endless crosses in the cemeteries in Europe. The acreage is massive.
They are maintained in spectacular condition by the US government.
Spectacular yes. Then a sadness hits me that those Crosses and Stars of David represent a once vibrant living individual. Most with families. Which I then switch to what is commonly known today as 'collateral' damage. Each symbol represents not one, but rather many changed by this death. The total number must be frightening.
I look along the VietNam Memorial and the 50,000 plus names becomes so much greater. Mothers, fathers, wives, brothers, sisters, children etc. A Gold Star Mother symbol in a window I have not seen in decades but there was a time when that 'collateral damage' symbol clearly focused on what the loss also really was, and to whom. It did not end with one single death.
My point is, I guess, that when you thank a vet tomorrow pause for a moment to think of the dead. Reflect still on how many of those 'collateral' individuals we should also remember.
I have another story of what happened to a family in Queens NY and the death in VietNam of one of their sons and the horror of that 'collateral' damage to a family which devastated 3 generations.
But that's for another time.
(The above was not meant as a slight against Veterans at all, merely to think of their families and their grief as well) cl
Last edited:
