Veteran’s Day 2013: Thank You

To all who have ever donned the military uniform to defend freedom, country, family, and cause,

thank you.

Short time, part-time, life time, or all time, your service, known or unknown, understood or questioned, decorated or unacknowledged is invaluable to the life that the rest of us enjoy and much of the time take grossly for granted.

To you and those alongside you who worked, sweat, cried, hurt, bled, and sacrificed of yourselves for our freedom to decide our next meal, word, occupation, friend, leader, and life,

with every bit of honor, respect, appreciation and heart that we can produce, we salute you.

Hold your head high today and every day – many have the opportunity to live well and have chosen to do so because of what you have done in our stead.

Your life and your service are of priceless value to the free.

Thankful for a Price Unknown

To all who have defended our freedoms domestically or abroad; to all who have guarded our coasts, rebuilt levees, protected our homeland, or proudly marched colors down Main Street or side street; to all who have left home, family, friends, and familiar for training or mission; to all who are among the civilian world, serving in reserve, ready at a moment’s notice; to all who have ever followed an order not completely agreed with, or issued one; to all who cannot, or hope never to need to speak of their experience and service again; to all who have lost components of their own lives in the defense of others’; to all who have returned home happy and contemplate redeployment because the call of arms is still strong; to all families whose heroes returned only to be laid to permanent rest, or did not return at all; and for all those who have gone before, placing their own lives at risks that the rest of us will never understand so that we wouldn’t ever have to, this Memorial Day, you are appreciated. We salute you, and pray for you and yours.

Thank you for what you have lived, what you have lost, and what you have secured for all of us.