I am proud to have served my Country. Geaux USA! I was in the U.S. Air Force from 1992-1996. Stationed at Lackland AFB, TX (San Antonio, 6-weeks for basic training), Sheppard AFB, TX (Witicha Falls, 21-weeks for Medical Laboratory Technician - Phase 1 training), Keesler AFB, MS (Biloxi, rest of my tour for Phase 2 MLT training and permanent party).
(WWII Monument)
Some years ago at a Layton family reunion (occurring near Veterans Day) we had an evening where the family asked for all veterans or currently serving military members to stand to be recognized. The family then asked for each to share some experiences from their tours of duty...starting at the oldest family member, I as the youngest went last. It was an interesting and in some ways uncomfortable experience. I stood as one of the (and maybe the only) person from my "age" or "generation" to have served. I stood with my father, uncles and great uncles (brothers or brothers in law of my grandmother).
(Korean War Monument)
These men in some and most cases really "fought" for our country. They served in a time in our nations history when friends and family members never came home...alive. I remember a story of a grand uncle told when flying back across the English channel in a plane so riddled with bullet holes and flack damage they did not know if it would hold together to make it back to England from a bombing run over Germany...or if there was even enough fuel to do such. I remember when my uncles and father served in a war not popular here in the US...and were most likely persecuted by some in their country during the Vietnam era. I remember my uncle saying his service meant so much to him that he would be proud to have one of his sons serve.
(Vietnam Monument)
I remember feeling uncomfortable since I had never fought, sweated, or even seen a foreign land during my tour of service. I talked of being watched over as I tried to get assignments abroad (volunteering to enter the USAF and going in "open general" without any specified job assignment, volunteering and passing the entrance exam for the Para-Rescue / Combat Controller USAF Special Forces, volunteering for an assignment for the Air Transportable Hospital from our squadron due in an assignment in "the Sand" and later trying to re-enter the Navy as a Sub Nuclear Engineer during the last year of my engineering studies). I recalled and shared on how I could look back and know the Lord kept me, for some reason, from those assignments.
I still often think of this reunion experience and am grateful for my heritage...especially at these times of the year when we recognize the men and women who serve...and who keep serving...and support their families that do serve. Of all those who selflessly have given their lives...or been willing to do such for my freedom. For our freedom. I have always felt guilty somewhat...that I don't have some great story to tell someday to my children and grandchildren about my tours in foreign lands.
A few months ago I finally found some closure. I was driving home one night thinking of my label as a "veteran". I was blessed with a thought. I immediately began to cry and almost had to pull over due to overwhelming moment.
In my mind I had a whisper from heaven. It said "
no son...you did not...but you faithfully served many men and women who did".
I immediately began to think of the countless faces that I saw, the thousands or tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of tubes of blood...containing names of people whose face I never saw...and I will never meet. Retirees, spouses of retirees, active duty members, spouses and families of active duty members that as at some moment in time...I was their lab technician. Preparing blood for transfusions for the dozen or more open heart bypass surgeries our hospital did every week. Drawing units of autologous blood from men and women preparing for knee or hip replacement surgeries. Preparing special units of blood for neonatal primi-babies that were struggling in their entry into this world. Drawing blood from hundreds or thousands of young men and women who donated to help save lives around the world. These and many other scenarios.
To those out there...I am grateful that I had some small opportunity to help you, serve you and with love sweat and work with exactness for you. I treated each one of those tubes as if it were my mother, my grandmother, my child.
I cannot with words express my love for my country. What a place this United States of America is and has the potential to become (again). What a place it may still be if more took the opportunity to serve and learn and understand the sacrifice that is selflessly performed for our brother, sister, etc. To all those that continue to serve and most importantly to those supporting and waiting for those out in our service. I stand and salute you.
Happy Veterans Day.
