Home of the Brave!

For the last six months I have been traveling around the South Eastern United States with my books, visiting military installations and meeting a great many members of the military.   I’ve met veterans from every branch of service, from every war this country has ever fought.  Well, at least as far back as WWII.   Some of those wars are well known, others forgotten or just never known to the public.  What strikes me as amazing?  The names and faces change but the stories are always extraordinarily similar.  Heroic in nature, incredible to hear, consistently painful, yet told with such pride.

Yesterday, I grabbed two young troops and introduced them to a little ole lady I was talking to.  Her name is Joan and she was born in England.  When she was nine years of age she had survived the German onslaught of bombing raids that hit London, almost daily.  She told them, “I could see the pilot’s faces as they flew overhead, low, looking for us.” It dawned on me, this is why we serve, and this is why we all do what we do.

Everyday, while I am at the Exchange selling my books, people tell me their stories, and they almost always say, “Thanks for your service.”  I usually reply, “Ahhh don’t thank me, I was like a rock star with a machine gun; all I ever did was do what I loved doing, be what I loved being, a soldier.”  And the most common reply I get…  “Me too!”   

It isn’t Veterans Day, but if you love your life?  If you love the freedoms we have here in this great nation?  Thank a vet!  God bless the United States of America.  Land of the free, home of the brave! 

S. B. Newman, Author

The Night Eagles Soared and Burnt Yellow and Red