What is a veteran? He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long his wife was still alive to hold him when the nightmare comes.
She (or he) is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the drill instructor who has never seen combat but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valour dies unrecognised with them on the battlefield or the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the bar-room loudmouth, whose juvenile behaviour is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery in the field.
He is the ordinary and yet extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
"Thank you" is all most former soldiers need and, in most cases, it will mean more than any medal they could have been awarded or were awarded. Remember: November 11 is Remembrance Day.
-Clifford W W Witt, Sergeant Major, US Army (retired), Brighton
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