Adding my sincere appreciation and a note that I’ll be sending a link to this thread to my daughter. She reports for duty in the USAF on October 1st.
personal note to daughter:
Boots ~ when I grow up I want to be just like you. You are my hero, and now you’ll be a hero to our country. Dad and I are incredibly proud of your choice to become part of the United States Air Force. What a wonderful example you are to your younger brother and sister. We love you!
sniffling and returning the hanky to my pocket
Well, I just want to tell you that a thing like this pays a helluva lot o’ psychological bills. It really is part of a compensation package (that tends to be monetarily weak) - to be able and allowed to wear a uniform that I take so much pride in.
I remember reading once, that in the aftermath of World War I, the world’s greatest military calamity (also known, incredibly, as The Great War, and in a soaring triumph of hope over experience, as The War to End All Wars), of the author’s amazement that men would still volunteer to serve ungrateful and morally inferior countrymen. And in the cynical post-war years, when anything military was sneered at and treated with contempt and hostility, that a veteran, proud of his service, would hold as his most valuable possession a bit of common metal dangling from a piece of colored ribbon.
Well, unless you’ve had the experience of being decorated in front of the people you esteem most in the world, your Brothers in the Profession of Arms, you can’t understand it.
I would also like to thank the people that have the toughest job in the military: the spouses that support us. I may not get paid much, but Lucretia don’t get paid NUTHIN’. And she’s a volunteer just as much as I am. When I re-enlisted once, I reminded the witnesses that they just saw TWO people re-enlist. I swore the oath and signed the paper, but she made it binding when she kissed me.
Thank you all for this thread and your contributions to it.
I am in awe of those of you that serve and protect our country, states and cities, you do so much and typically don’t receive the respect you deserve for your courage and honor.
I thank you for being our protectors and rescuers…for putting your life on the line to do so…and for caring so much about our country that you dedicate valuable time away from your families to care about the USA as a whole.
I thank every person that has given their life for our country, and every family that has lost a loved one fighting for our country.
You are all very special individuals.
Melanie