What Is a Vet?
War makes strange giant creatures out of the little routine men who inhabit the Earth.
--
WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle.
. . .
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg -- or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, 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?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudia Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
He is the Nebraska farmer who worries every year that this time the bank really will foreclose.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 39th Parallel.
She -- or he -- is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another -- or didn't come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who never has seen combat -- but who has saved countless lives by turning slouchy no-'counts into soldiers, and teaching them to watch each others' backs.
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.
He is the anonymous hero in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the other anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket -- palsied now and aggravatingly slow -- who helped liberate a Nazi death camp, and who wishes all day long his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being -- a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known. This editorial first appeared in 1995.
Reader Reactions
RTD- it’s kind of sad that the only female soldier vignette is that of a sobbing nurse. Why are all the rest “he”? Woman serving in the military do more than just nursing. I think you missed a very good opportunity to highlight some of the very important things woman do in our military and their experience and struggle as veterans.
It doesn’t matter who trains where, the fact is that our Veterans come from all walks of life and are in all branches of our military. They are the men and women that fought for our freedoms and our rights. Veterans include the ones that haven’t seen war but were ready to go should duty call. Veterans are family members that left the home and their families to protect ours…and protect even the people that would spit in their faces and put them down for their bravery. We owe our freedoms and rights to these beautiful people and owe our thanks to God for putting these people in this world. Yes, I will look at the older gentleman in the grocery store with more appreciation and gratitude the next time as I will look at the younger people that are home and have served in the Gulf Wars for they too are our Freedom Protectors and our children, moms, dads, brothers & sisters. God Bless them all!!!
I agree with the Marine issues. Yet it is so powerful and meaningful that the TD remembers that Veterans Day is for the living and Memorial Day for the dead. “Climb to Glory”
Perceptive but Quantico is for officers. They have already proven to have something on the ball or they don’t get into Quantico. All of us no accounts went to PI or San Diego.
Excellent! I will never look at a bagger in the grocery store the same again. Thank you for an article that made my eyes tear up!
Very nice but at Quantico they train Marines, not soldiers.
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