Taking the time to thank a veteran today might not get you the response you might want or expect.
Today is Memorial Day. Not Veterans Day. There is a distinct and significant difference.
Veterans Day each November is, generally speaking, an opportunity to show gratitude to anyone alive or dead who ever has honorably served his or her country while wearing the military uniform.
That’s not what Memorial Day is. Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor those who have fallen in battle.
In fact, some veterans who have seen combat and returned home safely — alive, at least — feel some guilt about having returned to their loved ones while some of their battle buddies are still overseas. Each “thank you” has the possibility of triggering flashbacks to a moment when things didn’t go well on a patrol and bring back to the forefront painful memories.
Dead or alive, those buddies are still fighting the war, and those who have returned feel a not-so-small sense of obligation to not resting until their safe return.
Units once were deployed and returned home together — at least the ones still alive. That’s no longer the case. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are sent home one by one, piecemealing their return.
Today is not the day to thank a veteran, alive or dead. Of course, you’re free to do so and recognize Memorial Day in any matter you deem appropriate — whether that means attending the Memorial Day ceremony in Dobbins Heights (9 a.m.), the Memorial Day cookout in Norman (5 p.m.), the Wear Blue to Remember run at Reservoir Park in Southern Pines (9 a.m.) or none of the above.
Perhaps you’ll cookout. Have a cold beverage, watch the children play in the slip-n-slide, go fishing or just stay inside and watch a movie or ballgame of choice.
You can thank a veteran that you have all this options, but please, at least for today, keep those words of “thanks for your service” to yourself. You see, most veterans didn’t serve in an effort to garner your gratitude, and now that so many have been to battle and back, their thoughts are not thinking about whether or not you’re thankful for them, but of their friends who are still over in theaters of war — and of the ones who didn’t make it home alive.
Kevin Spradlin is managing editor of The Pee Dee Post. He served in the U.S. Army with the 593rd Corps Support Group out of Fort Lewis, Wash., the 55th Engineer Company in Fort Riley, Kan. ,and with the 50th Engineer Company at Camp LaGuardia, South Korea. But there’s no need to thank him for any of that.
