Today is a special day in the United States when we honor our veterans.

It is our opportunity to thank and celebrate all those who have served our country in military service. Thank you for your service!

A few years ago, Andrew Budek-Schmeisser posted these great words; and we are reposting them, like we have done previously, with his permission. They are perfect for this day.

They did not have deferments,
or parents in high places,
yet death has still same permanence;
do you recall their faces?
They went at the draft board call,
didn’t flee across the border,
and now their names are on the Wall
in fate’s calendar-order.
How will you honour memory
of men who were betrayed
by a country turned from victory
as the Great Game was yet played?
The Wall offers this introspection;
behind their names is your reflection.

Then he created a second piece:

As you walk on down the road
you walk with silent hosts
of the ones who bore the load,
and are to us as ghosts
whose hands will never guide a child,
whose voices will be heard no more;
they stood against a world gone wild,
and God has closed the door,
behind which He will dry their tears,
and mend both limbs and hearts,
and we must wait down through the years,
and waiting, play our parts
in effort, and whatever cost
to validate what they have lost.

[We have left previous comments intact. Please add your own thoughts.]