Well said, Mark. While the hearts of Americans are obviously in the right place when they honor all servicemen and women today, I think it's important to remember that today is specifically to honor the heroes that paid the ultimate price. It's different from Veteran's Day.
You nailed it bro. I've been away from this board awhile(for once by choice
), but came back specifically to honor the fallen and their families. I come from a military family and was taught the importance of this day at a very young age. My grandfather served in WW2, my uncle in Viet Nam, my father managed to avoid war during his time in the Air Force, which I nearly enlisted in after getting a good ASVAB score. Fortunately, my grandfather made it back, or folks here and elsewhere wouldnt get to enjoy my antics and occasional insight. I thought about that for a time while others were putting the holiday to its usual use.
Rather than getting hammered or stuffing my face and socializing which most holidays have devolved to for the majority of this nation, I spent the day alone reading about war, watching/listening to some documentaries, and reflecting about it on my own. I never swore the oath to "protect the Constitutution from all enemies foreign
and domestic" like each member of the armed forces, police, and elected officials do. Some may remember brave
and honorable Presidents like Andrew Jackson, who not only was a war hero, but almost gave his life defending it the Constitution as President. Jackson had proclaimed he'd kill the 2nd central bank before it killed him. Luckily for us, the pistol of the assassin jammed twice. There are other Americans who have given their lives domestically to uphold that oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, such as policemen, and unarmed folks who defend the Constitution in a variety of ways such as journalists, whistleblowers, etc.
In the spirit of the golden rule, I want to honor a much more recent war hero. Army Ranger John Needham was awarded 2 purple hearts and 3 medals for heroism, but John did so much more for his country than even that. A lot of people talk about honoring the troops, and some do with more than the occasional lip service. After posting this elsewhere, I remembered this place and came back specifically to ask each of you to honor John Needham by watching this video and learning his story. I feel this would be much more compelling than "American Sniper"(and a hell of a lot more real) if a movie were made about it. I'm honoring this hero and doing what I can do right now to help him uphold that same oath he fought so bravely to keep. It doesn't matter what political views you have if you have any, I am not sure how any American can't consider this man a hero. This is a man I'd love to be able to buy a drink or dinner and have a chat with. This guy's name deserves to be known by the masses 1000x more than the American sniper, although unlike the sniper, he never claimed to have knocked out Jesse Ventura in a bar fight. Sometimes true stories are more compelling than hollywood movies "based on" true stories, and this one is free to watch. John Needham upheld his oath and paid the ultimate price. I didn't spend time writing this for likes, I'm posting this in John's memory and to help uphold that oath he fought bravely to keep.
