Vets: What Are YOU Thankful For?

It didn't go off with a bang, but a whimper.  Veteran's Day.  Dillon was out of school but spent the day on the family farm with his grandparents.  My husband worked, as usual.  This year, however, work is not usual. 

For 22 years, my husband was in the United States Air Force.  This year, is his first year as a Vet. 

In the morning, Dillon made a point of telling him thank you and "happy Veteran's Day."  In the afternoon, he got a call from him mom thanking him, too.  I told him how proud I was of him and personally thanked him for watching out for our family.

I did stop several times on the day to remember part of "our" military service.  Living on military instillations, being part of that exclusive community of people who know exactly how it feels to be seperated from the people you care about, extending and recieving holiday invitations to be with strangers when a military member is deployed. . . and shopping.  Shopping at places civilians can't go.  I miss that a lot.

My husband will talk about his years in Germany wandering around castles and tasting beer, his time in Minot, ND, and the piles of snow, his first deployment in the Phillipenes when Mt. Penatubo errupted and he lost everything he owned. 

He doesn't talk about working at the Pentagon on 9/11.  He doesn't talk about Serejvo and what Christmas feels like in 2 feet of mud while people shoot at you.  But then, again, families don't often hear the worst.

I think that is what I am most thankful for.  These brave men and women will sacrifice, serve and live with some amazing benifits and bring home fantastic stories. . . and the rest, they keep to themselves.  They, even after their service, often protect the rest of us from the things they have seen and had to do. 

That is brave.