Veteran's Day, celebrated on November 11th, is a holiday that was created to celebrate World War I veterans that had fought and that had died in battle. Memorials aren't enough to honor the memory of those that fell in battle, one day of remembrance isn't enough to fill the hearts and gaps and voids left for those families that have a loved one that died in battle, but one day of remembrance is all that those families will recieve. Although my immediate family has not served in battle, I can imagine how I would feel if I were drafted into battle, or if my father were drafted and killed in battle. I would be utterly crushed. Decimated. If I were to enter the fray on the side of America, I think that I would not be able to battle readily. My cowardice would take over.
Veterans should be celebrated for their courage and bravery. Brave veterans are those who went out into battle, bayonets and grenades at hand. Brave veterans are the ones who engaged in hand-to-hand combat when they ran out of ammunition. Brave veterans are the ones who survived on mushrooms and emergency rations in the middle of a foreign country. Brave veterans are those who die leaving a loving family, a beautiful wife, loving children and a once-whole family. Brave veterans are those who go into battle without battle experience, knowing full well that once they go out into the battlefield, people are out to end their lives. Brave veterans are those who have never killed, or even intentionally injured a human being. Brave veterans are those who are faced with death, life, illness, famine, confusion, loneliness, elation, despair, and tranquility in foreign lands.
How many times have you been put into a situation where you want an escape, but you know that you have to continue, because it is your duty. Well, that's how I imagine war veterans felt as they entered the fray. Battle is something that shell-shocks tough men into oblivion. The things that they see... the sights they witness... the atrocities that war prisoners have to endure. All this for the glorious protection of one's country. It is a very patriotic thing is it not? I think that one day of remembrance is not enough for these brave souls that fought for America, but in these busy & chaotic times, who really has more than one day in the year to pay tribute to the brave veterans of yesterday? God bless America, but please remember the heroes that fell and died and sacrificed life and limb for America.
