November 11, 2016, - 4:09 pm
Happy Veterans Day to All Who Served America
Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke, Jr., Iraq War Vet, Hugs Pearl Harbor Survivor/WWII Vet Houston James (Graunke Lost a Leg, Hand, and Eye Defusing a Bomb in Iraq)
I can’t let the day go by without thanking all of America’s military veterans–living and dead–for their service to this country. Without it, we wouldn’t be free and we wouldn’t be safe. Now more than ever, the contributions of those who serve should be valued by the rest of us.
It’s something I say every year on Veterans Day. And Memorial Day, too. The service and sacrifices of those brave men who served on the battlefield and in other capacities in service to our country should be remembered every single day and not just on these two holidays. Without them (and G-d), we wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t have a country, and we certainly wouldn’t be free to live our lives and go about our business in peace.
Many of our veterans have served in peace and relative quiet and safety. But they took the risk that they would be sent away to war–that they might be put on the front lines to lose their lives or limbs or minds.
Many others did not survive or did and came back without everything they went there with. Let’s remember those who survived but came home with arms and legs missing, with eyes gone and whole faces and body parts disfigured, making life difficult for them forever. And those who have all the body parts but their heads and minds are now messed up from explosions and trauma. Again, why did they sacrifice part of themselves over there, when we have imported thousands of the enemy here to slowly transform our country to “over there”?
On this Veterans Day as on every other before it, I remember my two favorite vets, my late father, H.L. Schlussel, MD, who served as a U.S. Army Captain during Vietnam, and my great-uncle Maurice J. Schlussel, MD, who became the U.S. Army’s chief medical officer for the South Pacific after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They both happily and proudly served and taught me the importance of our Armed Services and respect for them.
Pray for our troops that are still serving both overseas and on U.S. soil. Appreciate their service and pray for their well-being and an emergent homecoming for them. Bring all of them home alive in one peace, so that they will be veterans next Veterans Day and not the mourned next Memorial Day.
To those who served and survived, including my cousin Damian Schlussel, Happy Veterans Day to you and thank you for your service. Thank you for risking your life and limb so that I and the rest of us can live our lives freely. So that I can say what I want here on this website and others can read it without fear of punishment. Your risks and service mean the world to me.
To most of us.
Thanks, Dad, and thanks, Uncle Maurice.
And thanks to all of you who kept us alive and safe and continue to do so on U.S. shores in whatever capacity in which you served.
If you’ve ever worn the American military uniform in service to America, G-d Bless You (unless, of course, you spent your time in uniform appeasing the enemy).
Without you, our brave American veterans, who served knowing you might be called on to make the ultimate sacrifice, we wouldn’t be here living free.
Jewish-American Soldiers Pray at Goebbels’ House in Germany (See My Other Cool, Inspiring Photos of Jewish Soldiers Praying at Normandy, Etc.) . . .
Pfc. Abraham Mirmelstein (left) of Newport News, VA holds the Torah scroll as Capt Manual M. Poliakoff (center) and Corp. Martin Willien, cantor, both of Baltimore conduct Jewish prayer services at Schloss Rheydt, the castle home of Dr. Josef Paul Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, in Munchen Gladbach, Germany. The services, held in memory of soldiers of the Jewish faith who died in the drive to the Rhine, were the first held east of the Roer River in Germany. The photo was taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1945 or ’46.
So many ‘enlightened’ people have so little idea of how good we have it being Americans, enjoying freedom and opportunities.
I cannot thank the men & women who wear a uniform to protect us which allows to enjoy those freedoms enough. I am eternally grateful.
P. Aaron on November 11, 2016 at 8:04 pm