Veteran's Day 2012

I had hoped to make a stirring tribute to veterans everywhere and particularly for the Grouch clan but unfortunately for me I got sick and have just started to recover.  So I will let it go with this:

Thank you great uncle Thomas who served in the war to preserve the union, was captured at Gettysburg and paroled at Petersberg.

Thank you great uncle Paul, uncle Howard, and Grandfather Edward who served in the war to end all wars

Thank you Dad who served in the war to defeat fascism and literally save the world

Thank you father in law Rege who served from the cold war to Desert Storm

Thank you brother in law Bill who served as a hot pilot from Vietnam to Kosovo

Thank you sister in law Helen who also served in Desert Storm

Thank you brothers in law Rege and Christopher, sisters in law Anne, Elizabeth, Monica, and Amy who served during the cold war that sometime became hot

Thank you nephew Michael who became an All American and is fighting as one of America's legionnaires in Iraq and Afghanistan

Thank you Older Son who put his life on hold and deployed three times, lastly in a thankless mission to Iraq

Thank you Young Daughter who serves everyday with the Air National Guard helping to keep America safe.

Thank you Missus for following me to Germany as the wife of a new 2LT.  Little did you know what you were getting yourself into!  Thank you for being strong when Older Son was in Iraq.  Thank you for all the uniforms washed, insignia sewed on and removed and others sewn on.  Thanks for pulling my boots off of my aching feet when I staggered home late in the evening from my company.  Thanks for backing me when I deployed to Japan and you got to stay home with three kids and a 2 year old.  Thanks for everything.

Thank you veterans everywhere:  the cooks and bakers, typists and mechanics, infantrymen and tankers, aviators and ground crew, communicators and logisticians, sailors and Coasties,   There are no unimportant jobs in the military. Thanks to those who served in peacetime because it was their efforts who made sure the peace held.  Thanks to those who served in wartime, there is no greater sacrifice than to be prepared to give your life for freedom for our country.

Thank you one and all.