Veterans Day - the importance of telling your stories

On this Veterans Day, let us remember the men and women who served in the Armed Forces of our country. If you can visit a museum or historical site and honor those who sacrificed for the nation.

Recently, I went with my father to attend his 19th Bomb Group reunion. It was held at the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright Patterson Airbase, Dayton, Ohio. During the reunion, a memorial was dedicated. Here is Brig.General USAF (ret.) Charles Metcalf, director of the museum spoke briefly upon receiving the memorial gift.

If only 6% of the US population has any direct experience with the military, all the more reason to tell the stories that help to show who these men and women are.

Thank you for your service.

Comments

[Ed Brenegar]

Rick,
Your experience is similar to mine. The stories that I heard at my father’s reunion were not epic tales of heroism, but self-deprecating bits of humor. Check out the photos and videos from my dad’s 19th Bomb Group reunion at http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155990&id=696708318 and http://www.new.facebook.com/edbrenegar?v=app_2392950137&ref=profile . And I also heard about the loss of friends, some in horrific circumstances that came to give them a purpose or dedication to their lives. They are the Greatest Generation because they never made the war about themselves. I respect them a lot for that.
Great to hear from you. Hope your recovery is going well.

Thanks, Jim, for an eloquent reminder of what most of those who served were/ are like. It is like a friend of mine who is a retired Lt.Col/Ranger. The Military and Law Enforcement are the only people who run toward gunfire, like the woman at Ft. Hood last week. Firefighters are the only ones who run into the fire. Without these public servants, our society would never known the depth of what service truly requires of us.

[Jim Ericson]

Hi Ed,

A wonderful post!

I believe it was Rudyard Kipling who said "If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten."

I love to swap stories with anyone who's willing to listen to mine and tell me theirs. And even more important than the life lessons inevitably learned from these conversations, are the true friendships that develop when folks get to know each other "down where the marrow meets the bone."

I am proud to be among the 6% of Americans who've had direct contact with the military. I spent five years in the Air Force during the Vietnam war, and I can say with all my heart and soul that I've never in my life been associated with a more dedicated, hard working, and honorable group of men and women. And, it's not just the people I met then I'm describing, I'm talking about virtually every former service member I've met since. There is no way to mention all of them here, of course, but my golfing buddy of some 20 years Colonel Jim Larson typifies the lot.

Jim graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1964. He became a fighter pilot. He flew countless combat missions over Vietnam - many with recently retired Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Meyers on his wing. He was highly decorated. He made it home. He went on with his life.

If you don't really, really know Jim, you'd have no idea of the risks he took and the sacrifices he made for his country. And, like many other veterans of his era, that's pretty much the way he wants it.

I understand that completely, and yet getting to know Jim and his stories has been a true blessing in my life.

So, on this Veterans Day - and on any day you have a chance - don't just thank the veterans you know or meet for their service, ask them to tell you their stories. You'll be glad you did.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

[Rick Meigs]

I wish my dad would have shared more of his stories. As a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne during WWII, he was only one of 200 men who made every combat jump of the 82nd and survived.

He was willing to talk about funny things that happened, but nothing else. When he would try, he was soon crying and unable to go on. He lost so many friend and experience so much heartache that the pain and quilt (that he survived while his friends didn't) never left him.

Remembering this day Sergeant Sylvester H. Meigs, a combat veteran and a member of the Greatest Generation.