Just a few words about service for Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran’s Day.

In October of 2001, I was broke and freshly divorced at 22. I had just dropped out of college due to a seemingly insurmountable debt. I worked days as a temp and nights as a waiter at a pub. I was useless and unsuccessful and displeased with myself.

I still felt compelled to offer some service to society. Maybe it was because only a couple months earlier, as divorce became inevitable, I had resigned my position on the volunteer fire department. While the divorce made a convenient excuse, I would have been forced to resign eventually anyway. I was a horrible first responder. It took me half an hour to back the ambulance into the garage. I always needed help getting my fire gear on correctly. And when I first watched someone die during my resuscitation procedures, I retreated to the bathroom to cry for half an hour. I was a liability to my comrades, and simply not cut out for the work.

Of course, the pin-drop stillness in the back of everyone’s mind at that time was September 11th. To be useful and to “do something” seemed even more imperative. With all the maturity and wisdom a kid that age is capable of, I resolved to volunteer for service at the Air Force recruiting station in Craig, Colorado. My ex gave me a ride, since I had no car. After meeting with the recruiter and taking some exams, I returned home to wait for his call. Eventually, I was rejected for service because of my significant debts and horrible credit rating. I don’t even have asthma.

Some years later, I remarried into an Air Force family. Both of my brothers-in-law have served in our current conflicts – one as a fighter/surveillance pilot and the other as a flight nurse. They are frequently deployed, and life goes on. It is their job, and they carry it out as such – casually and gracefully. Their families never speak of it as an anomaly or a sacrifice. It just is. Life goes on.

Now that I know them, and am familiar with the skill, dedication, honor and mental toughness inherent to their very nature, I am ashamed that I ever considered myself to be of any value to our armed services. These men and women truly are cut from a different cloth. No matter what my opinion of these wars may be, when I think of Afghan patients being tended to by my brother-in-law, I am proud that he represents our nation. More than I ever could, our men and women in the armed forces represent the best and noblest aspects of the United States at great personal cost.

We’ve just completed a rather harrowing mid-term election cycle, in which the state of our wallets figured rather prominently. It was easy to forget that we are still in the midst of war. Today is the day to remember and to be grateful to our veterans.