“Freedom is not free . . .
Don’t worry, the Veteran paid most of your share.”
This is a shocking statistic – Percentage who actually have served their Country in the military.
- In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years.
- In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years.
- Since 2001, only 0.45% of our citizens have served in the Global War on Terror. (Afghanistan, Iraq and other Middle Eastern Locations)
Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse.
Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military.
Taxes did not increase to pay for that war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers, the people who swore an oath to defend this nation.
War time, peace time, front line, support – the Vet raised his hand to defend and protect this great nation.
They stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. They have lost relationships, spent years of their lives in extreme conditions, years apart from their families, that they will never get back, and beaten their bodies in a way, that even professional athletes don’t understand.
Then they come home to a nation that doesn’t understand.
They don’t understand suffering.
They don’t understand sacrifice.
They don’t understand why we fight for them.
They don’t understand that bad people exist.
They look at you like you’re a machine – like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one – not them.
When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Americas Wars because YOU WERE THERE and can’t understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias.
You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, mostly to cut, while they ask you to do more.
But the amazing thing about the veteran is they know this. They know their country will never pay back what they have given up. The Vet knows that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them.
Hell, the Vet knows that in some circles, they will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform, but they don’t care they do it anyway.
They did what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 – THEY SERVED. Just that decision alone makes them part of an elite group.
“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.” – Winston Churchill
THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED
CONTINUE TO SERVE
& WILL SERVE