Veterans and the Rockets Red Glare

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 3, 2014

The 4th of July is tomorrow and tonight many will head out to see fireworks but many more will avoid them. Veterans don't have to see fireworks to remember but since men were willing to risk their lives for this nation, it has been a cause of celebrating what Americans have without honestly thinking about the price paid by them.

Thought to be invented by the Chinese 2,000 years ago, fireworks have been a tradition of America's Fourth of July celebrations since the country's inception, with the founding fathers themselves seeing fireworks fit to mark the birth of their nation.

In a July 3, 1776 letter to his wife, John Adams declared that the signing of the Declaration of Independence should be a "great anniversary Festival" and "solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

It was not the last time average citizens would rise above their own needs for the sake of the country.

The Star Spangled Banner On September 14, 1814, U.S. soldiers at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry raised a huge American flag to celebrate a crucial victory over British forces during the War of 1812. The sight of those “broad stripes and bright stars” inspired Francis Scott Key to write a song that eventually became the United States national anthem. Key’s words gave new significance to a national symbol and started a tradition through which generations of Americans have invested the flag with their own meanings and memories.

The Star Spangled Banner will be played as always as the fireworks explode in the air but few will think of why or what price was paid.

The Star-Spangled Banner
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

As we've seen throughout our history, there sadly may never be a last time citizens will be asked to pay any price to retain this nation of ours.

Think of them tonight and tomorrow and why we have reason to celebrate what they did for us. Understand that for them, they will remember those who did not come home again. They will remember friends long gone. They will remember the terror they survived as real rockets and bombs exploded while they were far from home. Then think of the veterans with the war still fresh inside of them everyday. If you are not a veteran, thank one today for what we celebrate tomorrow. If you have Combat PTSD, this video was done for you.
Hero After War
When it comes to the wound of war that leaves a scar on the soul, Vietnam veterans have been there fighting to make sure it is treated and helping to heal all generations of veterans. Brothers taking care of brothers and sisters like no one else can understand.