Today, Nov. 11, our country celebrates Veterans Day. It’s a time for Americans to say “thank you for your service,” listen to a patriotic speech, wave a little flag, watch a parade, consume too many hot dogs and, for some celebrators, drink too many cold beers. Since formal celebrations will be Monday to provide folks a three-day weekend, perhaps the alcohol aficionados will have time to nurse their hangovers. Every American should know why we celebrate Veterans Day on Nov. 11. The day originated as Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1919, to celebrate the first anniversary of the end of World War I, initially called The Great War, a war hawked as “the war to end all wars,” yet unintentionally set the stage for the titanic struggle called World War II. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, then in 1938 made Nov. 11 a national holiday. World War II general and President Dwight Eisenhower changed the official name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954. The word “veteran” comes from the Latin word “vetus,” which means “old.” Old. Perhaps that’s why a perpetuating image of veterans on our special day usually features men and women in their Golden Years, hunched over, maneuvering their walkers or confined to a wheelchair, memories fading along with health. They deserve and earned the recognition. But there are others, still in the prime of life and still in good health, living and surviving with vivid memories of duty, honor, country, of the brothers and sisters with whom they served, of those who didn’t return. Those memories simply do not fade.
A person who serves in peacetime is still a veteran. In time of war, the person is referred to as a war veteran, and the person who actually fought on a battlefield, on land, sea or in the air is usually referred to as a combat veteran. It normally takes nine war veterans to support a combat veteran in the field, yet with the advent of guerrilla warfare and terrorism, there aren’t many so-called battlefields nor are there many rear areas of relative safety. With Vietnam being the exception, veterans are normally treated with the respect and dignity they’ve earned. But the Vietnam veteran endured the brunt of a nation’s frustration with a no-win war policy, a policy that actually didn’t exist as a tool for victory. We who fought and served in Vietnam have seen our legacy morph from “baby killers” to “heroes” when, in fact, we were neither. We were simply another generation who, like our parents of The Greatest Generation, answered our call to duty and did the best we could under doomed Rules of Engagement. Furthermore, it is heartbreaking for Vietnam veterans to live with the awareness that many of our brothers and sisters died before they witnessed the positive change in public opinion. Things change with time, yet time has a bad habit of changing a nation’s commitment. In 1990, 40 percent of young Americans had a veteran for a parent. By 2014, the percentage had decreased to 16 percent. In today’s military, 3 percent of our personnel were born outside of the United States. Less than 1 percent of our population has answered the call to arms. Nevertheless, American military veterans are everywhere, and every family is touched in some form or fashion by those who serve. Parents serve, their children serve, grandpa served, as did grandma. Your neighbor, friend or coworker donned a military uniform to serve and protect those who aren’t even appreciative. And those who aren’t appreciative couldn’t even make it through boot camp.
As of 2018, about 16 million living veterans served in at least one war with another 5.5 million having served in peacetime. Two million of those veterans are women. Seven million veterans served during the Vietnam War with 2.7 million having served ‘boots on the ground’ in ’Nam. The Persian Gulf War created another 5.5 million veterans who served in wartime. Of the 16 million to 17 million who served in World War II there are approximately 450,000 still with us, the same number of living Vietnam veterans who are still with us. Nam vets had a beast to fight after coming home from Southeast Asia called Agent Orange, thus the dwindling number of ’Nam survivors. Three states have over 1 million veterans: Florida, California, and Texas. Georgia has approximately 800,000. Yours truly has an article each week, meaning about 52 veterans per year have their stories told. We could use a lot more Petes out there.Over 400 interviews later, I still recall the first one: Vietnam veteran and Superior Court Judge Sidney Nation. The second interview: WWII combat veteran and personal friend Grady Mullins. After that, my memory is fading away faster than the “old soldier” in Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous farewell speech before Congress. But the last two, Vietnam veteran Coastguardsman Art Katz and WWII B-24 Liberator pilot Jack Hays are fresh in my mind. The task is, who’s next? I have a long list of veterans to choose from. Should it be the grunt or the general? The airman or artilleryman? The Army nurse or lady Marine? The medic or the Medal of Honor recipient? A black veteran, a Hispanic veteran or the decorated Marine who’s serving time in a state prison? Which ones ought to have their stories told when they all deserve their stories to be told? I have my list and Georgia lists 800,000 more.
What does it feel like to be a military veteran? Well, we know we had the guts to serve, to make it through boot camp, to do as we were told and learned how to lead others. We acquired good manners, learned how to say “yes, sir” or “no, ma’am” and carried those good manners through civilian life. And let it be known, good manners is not a weakness or a ‘”Southern thing”; it’s bred of training and respect, of fairness and service, of this confident trait called character. You go in as a boy and come out as a man, or enter boot camp as a girl and come out as a woman. The military changes you, in positive and negative ways. A service person, no matter how strong or how well-trained in the military, is never prepared for the horrors of war. War is an ugly, nasty business, an enterprise of ‘kill or be killed,’ and done for … God and Country? Negative. When the bullets fly and the enemy is probing the barbed wire, country is not a top priority; your weapon is. And in truth, even God means less than that man or woman beside you, because like you, they are trusting you to do as you were trained to do since their life depends on your performance under fire. God, however, is omnipotent in the whispers of prayer beneath your breath. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Combat Fatigue, Traumatic Brain Injury, six or seven deployments to a war zone, 22 suicides per day, which is 300 percent the national average, alcohol addiction and possible drug abuse, a long waiting list at the VA hospital, over 57,000 homeless veterans, of which 8 percent are women. The price of freedom.
Veterans Day is not the day for hot dogs and cold beer but the time to remember those who served, those who answered the call to duty so you didn’t have to. They did it for you. Sincerely comprehend what you mean when you tell a veteran, “Thank you for your service.”
Article by Pete Mecca – a Vietnam veteran. Visit his website at veteransarticle.com.