I can hear the yell of George Washington urging his soldiers onward. I see fellow comrades falling to the ground wounded. I touch the trigger of my rifle to shoot at the opposing. I can taste the bitter fog that was shielding us from the eyes of our enemies. I feel the fear and determination rushing through my veins as I ran to capture the enemy troops who were retreating, but in the end I could sense the unmistakable knowing of our victory.
This story could be one of many of our veteran’s tales of their victories, losses, their sacrifices. The things our nation’s veterans gave up to keep us safe are various but one thing is for sure, they gave them up, for me, you, your family. They sacrificed their lives to make sure we could live in a free country. Sometimes their sacrifices were their lives.
How do we give our thanks? Saying thank you to them in person is nice, but does it really match up for what they did for us? Nothing could say thank you enough for what they did, but we can do all that we can to give our thanks. There are various ways to remember them, some we even do without noticing. Everyday at school the students always pledge to the flag. On special days like American holidays we take a moment of silence to thanks the ones who gave their lives and the ones who are still alive today for risking their lives. By walking down the street and seeing an American flag, your mind flickers to you deceased grandfather who fought in the war. This is just a small example of honoring. More concrete ways could be in the center of town having a list of all the men that died fighting for you or respecting the flag. Never letting the flag touch the ground is a sign of respect for our country and through our country our veterans. One of the best ways is just being proud. One of they reasons they fought was to make us proud. It would be disrespectful on our part to not be.
As our veteran’s grow old they, like us some day, will need help for some tasks. Yes, our proud hero’s are still our proud hero’s from yesterday, that will never change, but we like them will need help bringing in groceries or walking down stairs, or even reading. Even in their old age they help us. They remind us of our gifts they gave. Yes we all know that the “When I was your age…” gets annoying sometimes, but if we actually think about it we do have it much easier then they did. People sometimes forget that veteran’s are our wise men and woman of our age. Not saying that people in the war aren’t wise but you learn best from experience right? People these days tend to forget that they are wise and can help us even after they helped us so much. We all should be very proud of them; they gave and are still giving to us.
The value of our proud veterans is invaluable. Even today in the war on terror we all might not agree on it, but we all know that our proud men and women are over seas becoming veterans of our age. Their children and their children’s children will be in the same position we are in right now. The new veterans will become the wise old men and woman and they will say “When I was your age…” like ours do now. So when you see a veteran struggling with a heavy package think for a second. Think about what they gave to you and what we can give back. Then in this in mind go over to that patriot and help them load it into the car. When they say thank you, you can say “It’s the least I can do…”