[DeTomaso] Veteran's Day

[Steve Hawkins]

Thank you

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of michael frazier
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 9:35 AM
To: pantera list
Subject: [DeTomaso] Veteran's Day



Last week I had the honor of talking to one of the little old guys who
walked into the death camps near the end of World War 2.  It's still
chilling after all these years.
 In honor of Veteran's Day and all those who have, and are, serving.WHAT IS
A VET?Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb,
ajagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidenceinside
them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in theleg - or
perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged inthe refinery
of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and womenwho have kept
America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vetjust by looking.
What is a vet?      He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi
Arabia sweatingtwo gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers
didn't runout of fuel.     He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five
wooden planks, whoseovergrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred
times in the cosmicscales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th
parallel.     She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and
went to sleepsobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.     He is
the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn'tcome back
AT ALL.     He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat -
but hassaved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and
gangmembers into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medalswith
a prosthetic hand.     He is the career quartermaster who watches the
ribbons and medals passhim by.     He is the three anonymous heroes in The
Tomb Of The Unknowns, whosepresence at the Arlington National Cemetery must
forever preserve thememory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor died
unrecognized withthem on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now
andaggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and whowishes
all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when thenightmares
come.     He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person
whooffered some of his life's most vital years in the service of hiscountry,
and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have tosacrifice
theirs.    He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness,
and he isnothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of
thefinest, greatest nation ever known.     So remember, each time you see
someone who has served our country, justlean over and say Thank You. That's
all most people need, and in mostcases it will mean more than any medals
they could have been awarded orwere awarded.Thanks guys and gals!Michael  
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