Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Happy Veteran's Day

In celebration of Veteran's Day, we walked in our little town's parade. There were marching bands, and, old tanks with tracks, and troops of marching soldiers, and a truck with a D-Day survivor and us.

Our ward (congregation) decided they wanted to participate, again. We did this last year, and Nathan and his dad (both veterans) walked together. Nathan is out of town this week, so he missed all the fun. And boy was it fun....

Did we build a float? or Find some mini motorcycles to ride? or Maybe push a handcart? nope.

We just walked.

We had a few missionaries, and some boy scouts with flags, and a scraggly group of kids and parents. One child cried the entire route. Appropriate, I thought.

It was embarrassing to me, though Emily and John loved it.

Right behind our sad group was the cutest bunch of marching ukulele players, ever. There were about 50 children, all in matching yellow hawaiian shirts, strumming and singing as they walked. They were adorable. I want to join that group next year....

I saw a news camera zoom in on them and I've been trying to find video of it, but I guess it didn't make the evening news. Shucks!


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I have been seeing some young wounded warriors around the base lately. There is a boy in my son's class whose dad was badly wounded in Iraq earlier this fall. The boy left school for about 2 months while he and his mom travelled to be with his dad in the hospital, but he recently re-enrolled in John's class. The dad has walked his soon to class a few times, with a walker. He has both of his legs and arms, but he seems kind of strapped together with lots of braces and wrap.

There is another dad that I see occasionally in the mornings at school. He is young and strong and has one prosthetic leg.

That is the kind of thing that brings tears to my eyes and takes my breath away. These are the young men and women veterans who need our prayers, and maybe something more, this Veterans day.

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A few years ago, actually exactly 4 years ago during the last election cycle, I was driving some kids up to Mt. Rushmore for a school field trip, when one boy in my car asked Hannah what her dad's job was. Hannah said he was in the Air Force. The boy said "My dad would NEVER do that." Meaning he would never serve in the military, ewwww!

I don't think I said anything, but I remember wishing I had said something like, "whew! Isn't he lucky he won't have to, since other people are willing to sacrifice to protect his family."

And you know, I'm so glad that little boy's dad doesn't have to serve in the military if he doesn't want to, but I am proud today of those who have chosen to, expecially my own Veteran!



Isn't he cute in uniform?

13 comments:

Mary said...

I'm proud of your veteran too! And all of them! What brave people to choose their jobs that require so much sacrifice.

Your parade experience sounds a bit like our primary activity this spring during our town's Main Street festival parade. We were just a scraggly bunch of kids sandwiched between real floats and it was on the embarrassing side, but the kids loved it. Fun!

tootie said...

Well said! And I love the picture! :)

Millie said...

Yay for veterans!

I want our ward to participate in the Veterans' Day parade next year. That sounds fun. I like the handcart idea. :)

orchard_girl said...

We are grateful for Nate and all other veterans. I love that photo of him, ahh mustaches. We missed out on HR's celebration, but we went down to the Veteran's Memorial and then took Hana up two flights of stairs almost to Mom and Dad's old house.

Mary Peterson said...

Thanks for the post Wendy. The part about the wounded warriors got to me. I cried like a baby. It's amazing to me the sacrifices that so many have made to protect my freedom. Thank you for the reminder that sometimes the sacrifice doesn't stop after deployments. Thanks for you and your families sacrifice.
I really like your picture. James grows a mustache almost everytime he deploys too. I always make him shave it off though. Ha! Ha!

Ms. Boedee said...

I loved your post...thank you for your words.

Anonymous said...

AMEN. I love my Vet and I'm proud that he would CHOOSE to make the sacrifices he does. HALLELUJAH for the military...Air Force in particular! Thanks Wendy, for the right words...always! Love you guys, not sure about the mustache tho!

Amanda said...

Did Nathan lose his razor? ;)

This was such a great post Wendy! Very touching! Thank you so much for your sacrifices on behalf of the rest of us. THANKS!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow you did a lot to celebrate. I felt kinda bad that there was not more than what the media did done here in Utah to celebrate. Although there might have been things going on we did not hear about anything. I love our military. My family has served in every branch. Have a brother over in Iraq right now.

Batya said...

In Israel, most men and many women are drafted, and it's a great unifier.

wendy said...

That's an old picture, the mustache is long gone...

Muse - I've wondered how that works.

Unknown said...

I'm sure you saw a bunch of guys wearing hawaiian shirts in the parade. That was me!

Tori :) said...

What's sad is that boy heard that from somewhere. :(