November 11th is Veterans Day and I am proud to have served in the U.S. Army from 1968-1970. My father served in the Navy in WWII and both of us love America and were honored to serve.

Veterans need to be honored for their courageous service facing machine-gun fire, catapulting from heaving carrier decks, and fighting in fetid jungles alone, terrified, and hoping to return to their loved ones once again. Unfortunately, many of those brave women and men have been forgotten and one day is insufficient for a grateful nation to honor their sacrifices.

Veterans can be honored by giving them food, shelter, and lifetime medical support. My brother-in-law Bob, who lives in Tennessee, volunteers with the Sumner County Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 240, to supply veterans with food for their families. Many of those veterans are forgotten and the VVA serves 14 families (including 23 children) weekly to ensure that they don’t go hungry. Why does our government send billions of dollars to Ukraine and other countries while those wonderful veterans who faithfully served our country are desperately seeking food for their families? That situation is infuriating, insulting, and despicable. Also, many veterans who are suffering from PTSD and/or drug addiction are homeless while illegal immigrants are given debit cards, free phones, and housed in nice hotels. Many veterans are not being honored but rather discarded and unforgotten.

Veterans can be honored by not sending them to fight in stupid wars. Herbert Hoover once said, “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” Vietnam comes to mind. 58,000 wonderful young men and women fought valiantly and died horribly in a misguided effort to stop communism. Afghanistan was another debacle. We spent twenty years in that ‘graveyard of empires’ and then one day the USA walked away, sans equipment, leaving stranded Americans and allies to fend for themselves. Thirteen men and women soldiers were killed at the Kabul airport. Biden was observed callously checking his watch when their flag-draped bodies were solemnly being removed from the plane at the Dover Air Force Base. Those wars were stupidly conceived and poorly managed. The government failed spectacularly to honor the men and women who were sent to die courageously but vainly on remote battlefields.

Veterans can be honored by never abandoning them. Benghazi comes to mind. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. government personnel Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty died in an attack at the mission and the nearby annex. They desperately needed help, but their pleas for military support were ignored and they were abandoned. The U.S. military was told to stand down and those brave patriots in Libya were left to fend for themselves. Ringing any bells? According to Paul Ryan, “Repeated requests for additional security in Benghazi were routinely denied by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.” Can you image the last minutes of their brave lives hoping in vain that America would come to their aid?

Veterans should be honored, respected, and appreciated on November 11th and all year for their service. As a grateful nation we can never repay veterans for their sacrifices but we can bow our heads and thank almighty God that such patriotic Americans were willing and able to defend our country. Where did we find such magnificent men and women?  

Image: Pixabay/Charles Thompson