• Find a Vet.
• Shake their hand.
• Tell’em “thanks.”
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I shake the hand and thank anyone I see in a uniform – or with a ballcap that only a vet would wear – whenever I see them. Most of the time they are grateful, occasionally kinda stunned. I can tell ya _I_’m grateful for their service, no ifs, ands or buts.
I got a haircut from a Vet today. I thanked him, shook his hand and over-tipped him. {8^)
As I’m sick and in bed today I can’t rightly get out to shake hands. But I did manage to send my best to my dad who served honorably as a Captain in the Air Force.
My dad’s gone, but God bless him today–a silent Navy veteran of Guadalcanal, Bougainville, other New Hebrides islands. I have proudly hanging in my hallway a picture of his CASU 12 support unit gang on Guadalcanal–he ended up with the 4×5 negative!–and on stakes in the back row of the group are skulls of Japanese soldiers. Really something–regular guys called to serve, nonchalantly displaying some horrors of their job. Different days, my friends.
He managed Henderson field on Guadalcanal for a while in ’43–I couldn’t be prouder.
Done and dusted. My across-the-street neighbor has thin scars in front of his ears that I’d never really thought about until his wife told me he was a Vietnam vet who had been gravely injured and left for dead in the jungle, and to add insult to that, a VC cut off his ears and threw them down somewhere near him. A medic found him, found his ears, and got him to safety, then to many months in a VA hospital. Although his ears were reattached, he suffered near-total hearing loss caused by his injuries. In rehab at the VA he was taught to lipread from the front and the side, so that he could carry on normal conversations with people. He is a great neighbor, and you’d never know the horrors he has experienced from looking at him or just being his friend.
I called him tonight to thank him for his service.
Went to a parade today and waved my little flag. Lots of people on the sidelines were saying “Thank you” to the guys and gals marching by.
a silent Navy veteran of Guadalcanal, Bougainville, other New Hebrides islands.
**Correction: that should be “other Solomon Islands”
I found two and hugged them, instead. Is that okay? (I’m a gal, so they didn’t seem to mind).
Step 4: Repeat