Thanking Our Soldiers

Good Morning!  My friend sent me this video this morning through Facebook.  I had other things planned to write about today, but this trumped it.  As you probably know by now, Tom and I are hard core patriotic, and support our country no matter what.  Although we are very unsettled (to say the least) about many of the things that are going on in this country right now, it is important to remember those who gave us the right to complain; and to me to have this blog where I can practice my freedom of speech.

Recently when I was in Iowa, my cousin had a cool plaque that said "The Home of the free, because of the brave", I think this may be my new favorite saying.  You see, here in the mountains we have a very strange mix of folks; many of them have moved here to get away from "civilization".  Many, many of them are our veterans who no longer can live in "mainstream society". So, this hits close to home for multiple reasons.

Many members of my family have been in the military (mostly Army, but a proud Marine as well-thanks Joe!) and some of them have seen war and some have not, but they were all in at times when they consciously chose to put their lives on the line for this country.  To be honest, with as opinionated and patriotic as I am, I don't think I could "suffer through" like our soldiers do; and for that matter I don't know many people who could, or would.  It really takes a special kind of person.
My concern is how many special people this country can use up and then set aside before we get ourselves in real trouble.  I say this from second hand experience.  We have a neighbor who was a medic in Desert Storm and has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder terribly.  It takes him months to even get into see a Dr. to see if he is even eligible for certain benefits.  It has taken many months from that original appointment to start receiving the benefits he needs to survive and to not lose his home.
Another friend of ours was an explosives expert in Vietnam and had to really fight for his benefits as well.  He had an entire ranch built around helping fellow veterans and lost the place to foreclosure.  So, not only did it put him on the run (he took off on his horse when they came to close the place down!), but put many other veterans out of their home and jobs as well.
Whether it is during their active duty or after, when things are really settling in that we need to support our troops.  At the very least they deserve a hand shake and a thank you.