What is a Vet? Published Nov. 18, 2008 By Father Denis Edward O'Brien United States Marine Corps WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. -- (Editor's Note: Introduction by Chief Master Sgt. Brian Hornback, 509th bomb Wing command chief) Our Nation took time out Tuesday to reflect and remember that freedom isn't free and that price was paid for by the sacrifices of America's sons and daughters - we call them veterans. In the post September 11th time we live in, it is even more important to remember we are still paying that price. Our country witnessed a historic election this year, one that seemingly divided the country down political party lines and yet a short seven days later, we took time as a nation to remember and say thanks to those who sacrifices made it all possible. Daddy. What Is a Vet? Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence of inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking. What is a vet? He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel. He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel. She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang. He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back at all. He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account red necks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs. He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand. He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass by him. He is any of the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep. He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come. He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is a soldier, a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known. So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say "Thank You." That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded. Two little words that mean a lot, "thank you." "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press." "It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech." "It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate." "It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."