November 11, 2018

Today is Veteran’s Day. I like to spend days like this going through old photos, thinking about my military career, and hopefully talking with some of my brothers.

Veterans Day was established in 1938 after years of being called “Armistice Day” in regards to the end of World War I. That war was a bloody one, with large numbers of men losing their lives in savage trench warfare and chemical agents used for the first time in declared war. It was to be the “war to end all wars,” but sadly the peace afterwards only lasted for twenty short years, and the world would be at war again, at least in Europe.

Millions of men and women have served in our Armed Forces, and I am proud to have known over seven hundred of them. I have forgotten a hundred names, but I never forget a face. While contracting for Allied Container Systems from 2006 to 2013, I spent a crazy amount of time in airports. I mention that, because I ran into people that I had forgotten, and immediately recognized their face. They might have been out of my life for anywhere from five to thirty years, but I never forget a face. I ran into Generals that I knew as Captains years before. I would look across a bar… and see someone that I knew in Korea when I was eighteen.

These men and women, for whatever reason, served our country in peacetime and war, and gave of themselves in so many different ways. Some were “grunts,” some were tankers, some were guitar players in the Army Band. Whatever they did, they served this Nation with dignity and respect. They deserve that back.

So when you see a veteran today at church, or especially if you see one sitting on the side of the road shivering, take some time to tell him or her that you appreciate their service. Buy them a meal or a drink if you have the money. Get that homeless veteran a coat if you can.

From one veteran to all of you, Happy Veterans Day, and may we never know the horror of war again.

Jim Culp

SFC, USAR

Retired