VETS

Today, we formally honor our veterans, but I would say this should be a daily event. So many days of our history, they awoke to a sunrise, not knowing if they would see the sunset or the smiles of those they left behind. Exiting an aircraft, slogging up snowbound hills, enduring the wave-driven agony of an amphibious assault, walking the silent deadly streets of Hue, Mogadishu, Helmand or Falluja and the steep scree of barren slopes,?they, then and now,?go forward on our behalf-all Services and all service. Today, we honor the person, the purpose and the promise.?The promise of what we were, what we are and what we wish to be. And because of the vets to come, what we will be.

What we were is also worthy of note……we now have the Vietnamese ex-military that now populate and improve our Nation.?We have a new colony of Afghans, torn from their land by a dark force and saved by our Uniforms-a last pledge to those that helped us when we needed them. They fought as hard as soldiers can for everything we stand for and are now part of our Nation and join the ranks of those that heeded the Emma Lazarus poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty-We lift the lamp beside the Golden Door.?That light persisted and nurtured every person that ever wore a uniform on our behalf.

I write this today because a Vietnamese Major, Nguyen Hiep, managed to save an isolated battalion from a multi-regiment trap in the deepest reaches of what we called War Zone D.?His 13 months of counseling, mentoring, instructing and leading, allowed me to save countless American lives on my second tour.?He died in a re-education camp for what he believed-he believed in what we are all about and died for it.

I also take note of Maya Lin, though not a vet, a child of immigrants, who with the inspiration of her new birth place, designed perhaps the most iconic monument to veterans ever built. The dark granite slash in which the most honored veterans reside.?On my visits, I, like most, touch the names of those I knew and stood besides, making a re-connection through time-she has more than paid the price of admission.?All those that served in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and refugees from our?other conflicts are extremely grateful for her contribution to the tapestry that makes America.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about kneeling, I suggest the following moments worthy of a kneel;

On a thick field of snow in a biting sub-zero wind to recall Valley Forge and remember how a Nation was born.

On a hot wheat field or peach orchard to recall Gettysburg and how a Nation was saved.

On a wide flat sandy beach to recall bloody Omaha and how our civilization was preserved and prevailed.

On any veteran’s cemetery, we should recall the greatest gift our Nation has bequeathed us, a wealth of ordinary people who have done extraordinary things on our behalf.?Every day when the sun rises and sets, we should reflect that they gave their Tomorrows that we may enjoy our Today.

In the cemetery of my mind, walk my personal ghosts of my blood as veteran’s past;

Col Daniel Manton, Rhode Island Light Horse, organizing a militia on Washington’s behalf, scouting New York, flanking the British at Trenton and watching Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown and the birth of our Nation.

Judson Stevens, my GG Uncle, standing with Buford on Day One at Gettysburg holding off the massed grey lines with his beautiful Spencer carbine-the rifle the Confederates said you loaded on Sunday and fired all week.?Later to retire to Pasadena, the cause of my place of birth. He participated in saving the Nation.

Walter Manton, MD. Awarded a DSC for personally leading a counter attack to secure his overrun aid station in the German trenchs.?The only DSC awarded to a Doctor in WWI.?He returned here to be president of what is now Huntington Memorial hospital and delivered me.

Henry Oscar Nightingale, my grandfather,?sacrificed his career in the foreign service,?to drive an ambulance for the French at Verdun in 1916 and was never the same.?The experience never left him.

Edward Nightingale,?my father, perhaps the most representative, was an advisor to the Chinese in Burma and walked the Shan hills for Stilwell in total obscurity and lack of notoriety.?He always reminded me after I chose the Infantry-Artillery rides, Infantry walks.

But he inspired me to join and I am forever grateful.?I am mindful of watching his troop train depart Ft Lewis, holding my mother’s hand, wondering why everyone was crying and then listening every night to the news with her and my Grandmother.?

The smell of paint, cosmoline, coffee and coal of numerous Army posts directed the lodestone of my life.?My 29 years in uniform were the best of an otherwise long life.?I believe that to be a sentiment shared by any one credited with being a vet.???

Today, the world is vastly different from what my ghosts would remember.?The battlefields are infinitely more complicated and dangerous.?Our threats are numerous, ambiguous and without easy solutions.?At home, we rely on the thin red and blue lines of First Responders to retain order out of chaos. Abroad, we ask 1% of our population to shoulder the burden for 99% so we may go about our daily lives and benefits without pain, concern and with minimal notice.??

The average age of our junior enlisted Infantry-Army and Marine-now both male and female, the very pointy and important tip of our National bayonet, is 19.

How many 19 year olds do you know that have willingly written their will??And they also willingly write a blank check on their lives for the rest of us.?Some will be cashed and others not, but it is always to a constantly growing account for which our cemeteries attest.?Their Tomorrows are cashed for our Todays.

Every living vet holds a place in his or her heart for the special moment in time where all were equal, all together and all were and are today family.?It was a moment in life when all that mattered was performance and the greatest fear was loss of reputation amongst peers.?Time and circumstance may shroud that moment, but it can never remove it. This is a special place that only the very few may share. This family holds a unique place in the heart and the head that will be part of every vet’s last clear moment.?

Our Nation comes together today, to recall and reward our historic youth-past, present and future-some were Infantry, some had other skills, services and roles of equal and reinforcing import.?The color of the uniform was all the same-all American.

All were and are Vets.?Each, regardless of the quality, notoriety or obscurity of their service, was supremely important to what we are now today.

Vets, and those prepared to be vets, are the thread that holds our national tapestry together.?We could never recognize and honor the tapestry as a whole, absent the cohesion and strength created and held by that thread.?It is a resource that not only adds to the tapestry of our time, but is also infinitely expandable as are the ideas and qualities of our Nation and what we are about.

For that, and not just for today, we should take a knee and be eternally grateful.