Giving thanks on Thanksgiving
I have always believed that this was the greatest, most compassionate, and most generous country this world has ever known, and that Americans are always stronger, faster, smarter and braver than anyone else. I am really not sure how national pride and love of country became so deeply ingrained into my psyche, just as I can't explain why I choke up singing God Bless America.
The only thing I can think is that I gained much of this patriotism by going with my dad to his VFW Post. While dad drank beer and laughed with his buddies, I roamed around the building looking at all the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force (Army Air Corps) patches that decorated the walls. They were wonderfully colorful hand painted works of art, each about 12x18 in size, arranged along the top of the walls like a border, angled down slightly so as to be more viable, and all bearing at least one name... and as my dad's name was under the 11th Airborne patch. I remember spending hours sometimes, just looking at those patches, drinking Frosty root beer, eating Snyders pretzels, and playing songs on the Wurlitzer JukeBox (which were always free 'cause one of the guys showed me how to push the button on the back that gave you free plays!) Sometimes these names, which I learned from my dad and his buddies, were the names of the men that served in that particular unit, had a blue or gold star next to them. These were the same stars the teacher would put on the top of your page when you did a good job, and in my young mind, I assumed that must be what these stars meant as well.
I don't remember exactly when I got the courage to ask what the stars meant. My dad had always admonished me not to ask any of these guys what they did when they were in the military - if they wanted to tell me they could, but never ask. He was very adamant about this, which was unusual since, because he only saw me once a month (my mom and dad were divorced when I was 3 and I lived with my mother), he tended to indulge me, so this admonishment was unusual enough to sink in. I think it was when I saw someone changing the star next to one of the names under the biggest patch in the place - a great big yellow shield, trimmed in black, with a black stripe running diagonally down from the upper left to the lower right, and a black horses head in the upper right corner.
He was changing it from a blue star to a gold star.
So I asked.
The man who was changing the stars told me that a blue star meant that a person was actively serving in the military, and a gold star... well that meant that a person was killed in action, in this case a battle in a place called Vietnam. I was 8 or 9 years old, and this was my first recollection of that war. Later that day my dad reminded me that this was the older boy I had played basketball with the previous summer at this very VFW Post. I remember wishing then that I could remember the boy's face... I couldn't, and I felt bad for that. I remember thinking that this was a boy, not that much older than me, what was he doing in the Army? I had met him, he was a nice kid, and he was dead.
Then I began to notice all the stars around the room.
And I began to realize that all those old guys my dad was drinking beer with, the ones he didn't want me pestering to tell their war stories, they all had their own blue stars up there at one time... and they all were boys once, too.
Glen Beck and the USO have put together a program whereby a person can contribute $15 and provide a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine, serving in the Iraq or Afghanistan theaters, a calling card that will give them 33 minutes of phone time to their family back home. Of that $15, half goes to purchase the calling card and the other half goes to the USO. Those brave men and women - boys and girls really - will not be home for the holidays and, unfortunately, some will only come home draped with a flag. So when you are enjoying the turkey and the fixings this Thanksgiving remember what these men and women have, are, and will be sacrificing. Giving $15 is something everyone can do to show our troops that America is proud and thankful for the terrible and tough job they are doing so well. To donate call 1-877-522-7000 or visit the USO website.
