Veterans never outlive usefulness

Veterans never outlive usefulness

by
Chaplain Kathie

Sometimes it's almost as if as soon as we send men and women into the battles we decide need to be fought, they have already outlived their usefulness when they come home. Sure, we can always manage to find the money to send them, by weapons, get them there and keep them going while they are there, but after we pay their fare to come home, we seem to think our obligation to them is over and done with.

We'll show up at their funerals, offer a hug to their families, then we get to walk away never having to give them another thought until years later when a monument to the fallen is dedicated to "honor" their sacrifice.

We may show up when one of them comes out of Walter Reed or Bethesda missing some body parts and they are in need of having their homes adapted.

At least some of us do something to show them we do appreciate them but even for the ones paying attention, few really ever get personally interested unless one of their own family members are one of them.

Ask anyone showing up at any event to honor the men and women serving if they know any facts. They won't have a clue we have 18 veterans a day committing suicide. They don't know 12,000 a year attempt suicide either. They won't know where the veterans homeless shelter is or that there are homeless veterans in their own community. They won't know how many are wounded, how many died today in combat or how many died after they touched US soil again.

Most people have forgotten about Agent Orange and Gulf War Syndrome still claiming lives, more of the price they keep paying for serving. Even today too many Americans have no idea what PTSD in reality instead of some kind of twisted thought that the veterans claiming PTSD are anything but changed by what was asked of them.

There are so few veterans it's easy to forget all about them when you consider there are over 300 million people in this country but less than 30 million are veterans and even less are combat veterans. It's easy to forget that once they come back from combat, they will carry those days, those months, those years in their minds forever. They will remember every face they served with. Remember every man they served with, every woman they called "sister" and every horrific moment as well as outstanding ones.

We seem to think that if we give them two days a year, Memorial Day to honor the fallen and Veteran's Day to honor the survivors, that's all we have to do. Even at that the majority of the American public complains when traffic is diverted for the parades as we try to go off and go shopping or to a cookout. What the day is really for escapes our thoughts.

The day after Memorial Day, the family is still missing one of their own. Friends still grieve because someone they know is part of the price paid by the few who were willing to serve. Land of the free really means something to them because they truly understand what sacrifice for it is. The day after Memorial Day, we move on and forget.

The day after Veterans Day, we think about them for a second or two. We may even have a sense of appreciation when we see a movie on TV or read about a hero being interviewed in the local newspaper. What we fail to acknowledge is that they are veterans every day of their lives. Their families are no longer included in the oblivious observer category detached from the realities of combat. They are also not really included in on the list of sacrifices paid as a family member dealing with the results of combat.

They get to do battle because of combat. They have to fight the VA to have claims honored at the same time they have to convince their veteran that they are not asking for a handout but for the debt owed to them to be paid. Veterans are the last person able to ask for help because they are the doers after having put themselves behind what the country needed them to do. Then they have to fight the VA to have the claim approved, wounds taken care of and lost income somewhat replaced. The average American is not just lacking a clue of how many claims are on hold, tied up or reviewed, they lack any understanding that until a claim is approved, there is a combat veteran with hurting financially because they were hurt on the job, the job we asked them to do.

With all of this, when their days as a Marine, Sailor, Soldier or Airman are over, when their days as a National Guardsman or Reservists are over, they are not really over. While their days of usefulness on the books in their boots have come to an end, their lives are forever tied to all of it. We need to once and for all get past the notion they are no longer useful so we don't even have to give them any attention at all.

Most of the veterans in this country are still the people we depend on to be there for us, no matter if we acknowledge this or not. They are responsible for everything we say on "appropriate occasions" like "Land of the free because of the brave" yet never seem to really be willing to repay that debt. Talk to a group of police officers and you'll find most of them served in one branch or another before they became officers protecting our streets. Talk to a group of firefighters and you'll find many either still in the National Guards or a military veteran. They also head service organizations doing services to the communities they live in. They raise sons and daughters to understand what it is like to give back and they in turn enter into service to others in one form or another.

The usefulness of a veteran is everyday because long after the boots come off, long after the monuments are dedicated, long after we've forgotten all about them, they are aware they are not only a part of our history, their lives are part of our future because of the example they set as the few willing to go.

This is evident all the time with the Nam Knights Orlando chapter. Yesterday was just one more of the days no one knows about because what they do is never acknowledged by the local media.

While a poker run may not be newsworthy, the story behind yesterday makes for an outstanding human interest story. Given the fact the Nam Knights are about those who gave in the military or law enforcement, they still give everyday to their communities and to the troops serving today. The usefulness of the Vietnam veteran parents lives on. Some have children serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

This is Jack Sr.

A Vietnam vet that had a family and raised his children with love. Darrell knew what it was to give back because of the way his father set the example. After the accident, the way he and his family reacted was and still is an inspiration. Yesterday at the end of the poker run, Darrell said he felt blessed by being surrounded by so many people caring about him. He has held that same feeling of being blessed when he was concerned for the rider that had the saddle bag break off his bike. Darrell wanted him to know that he did not blame him for any of what happened that day. While it would be considered normal to want to blame someone for the suffering after, Darrell and his family found more power in reacting with compassion. They are an example of the type of people raised by and embraced by veterans. The usefulness of Jack Sr lives on.

After the accident, these veterans, these heroes rushed to help their wounded brothers. One of them, a firefighter called Wolf, wounded himself and bleeding, grabbed his emergency bag and rushed to help the others. Darrell said that Wolf saved his life.




Another Nam Knight, Stogie did not survive that accident. The usefulness of his life still goes on in his family. The love he gave to the rest of his "brothers" in the Nam Knights will live on and that is clear when you hear his name mentioned and stories of his life with them retold. It lives on in his family and in his wife. Last night back at the club house, she placed some of his ashes on the Eternal Memorial so that part of him would be with his "brothers" forever. Rita could have reacted differently but she, also filled with compassion, only wanted to acknowledge the fact that Stogie was loved by the Knights and loved them in return. His life is still useful and meaningful to both of his families.

For some seeing a group of Harleys and leather clad bikers heading off, they look at them with disgust never knowing what kind of people they are. They could be heading off to a charity ride as they did yesterday or off to Washington DC for Memorial Day and no one knows how much they give back all the time or how their lives are still usefull. They don't know that every Saturday night at 7:00, they offer up a toast to the troops and a silent prayer for their protection or how they contribute to many of the charities dedicated to taking care of those who serve today.

We move on, get on with our lives and most of the time we never really know how good people are because goodness is not "newsworthy" and reporters don't want to cover stories like this. Sure they show up and report on bad things people do all the time, but when they are truly remarkable, making a difference to so many all the time, they don't seem to find value in those actions. We all remember reading stories about Vietnam Veterans doing bad things when they came home but no one was reading about how these same men and women returned to fight for PTSD to be treated and compensated for. We didn't read about the changes in everything our country benefited by because they did this. They never gave up on us even though we forgot about them.