Thank You

The beginning of February 2013 was the beginning of a very scary & educational time in my life. On the 8th I was rushed into the emergency room with 2nd and third degree burns to face from a fire caused by an oxygen hose burning through, it was also determined that I had a very bad case of pneumonia and by the time they got me into the hospital I was standing at the Pearly Gates waiting for St Peter to let me in. But it never happened. Now this happened another two times that month I had left this life and went to the entrance of heaven only to be sent back with the knowledge my work here was not finished and He didn't want me yet. Two weeks ago they sent me home telling me I would be back but there is nothing more they can do for me. That I would only be able to sit and do nothing until the end came. Now every day I go to our super Walmart just to have some place inside out of the weather to walk and do more and more every day. Yesterday I had an appointment with the Cardiologist an he told me I was doing good an doesn't want to see me for another six months. Then today the pulmonary specialist told me the same thing.

So as I stated I have been going to Wal Mart to walk around and get the exercise they want me to get. So after leaving the doctors office I headed to Wal Mart to do some walking around and also to do some shopping. Seeing it was noon time I figured I would get lunch so I headed to the Subway restaurant in Wal Mart. I ordered my coffee & two six inch subs. Now when  I go out I always throw a baseball cap on and the one I have been wearing here recently is the one with the Army insignia on it. There where a couple of people ahead of me in line and while waiting the woman directly in front of me said thank you out of the blue. This gets to me every once in awhile because I'm just not use to it. When I got out of active duty they spit in our face and cold us baby killers, now they are saying thank you an kissing our rear ends. Do not take me wrong it really makes me feel good that people are finally showing their support for the GIs. They put there all into defending our freedom and fighting our wars, coming home missing body parts, minds that are no longer as healthy as they where when the entered service. Those two little words that are larger than the Empire State building are the best medicine an therapy there is for the veterans. When it came time she paid for her order turned to me and asked if there was anything else I was getting then told the cashier she was going to pay for my food, no matter how many times I told her she didn't have to buy my lunch she was the type of person who once her mind was made up there was no changing it. She proceeded to tell me why she does what she had just done. Basically it was because she was so proud to be an American and to have such dedicated young men & women put their life in danger for their countrymen. Also how she started out with nothing but what she had on her back and now is pretty much well off and tries to pay back in some way for having it so good. But mainly to show appreciation for being a free American citizen.

Now I must say so people reading this do not get offended when I say there is nobody out here reading this that can truly understand what is being written if you have not been confronted by the happening of these events in your life. Let me state I am not saying it's bad if you haven't because I firmly believe not everybody needs to become a military fighting machine, If I hadn't been called to do so I would not have missed it.

Now for more clarification you need to be told the writer of this was in the Viet Nam War era. When we were released from active service here where no large crowds welcoming us home from the war front. There weren't people on every corner or on TV or writing in the paper or somewhere else reminding us to thank the Veteran. No when we were released from active duty we were sent back un-announced mustard out or at least most where mustered out and sent the rest of the way home by ourselves by whatever means we could use. I was not totally released from the Army until the early eighties when President Ronald Reagan declared the Viet Nam Police action an official war. I was kept on in-active non releasable status do to my bad health. Severe heart and breathing problems. But when I arrived at Chicago O hare International airport along with other GIs we were greeted with boo and being spat on in the face, being called baby killers and other things to awful to mention here. Now jump 45 years from 1967 to 2012. Everybody is on the band wagon of tell the veterans thank you for their service no matter when they were in service. Now as one of these ex-service men you are standing in line in a very busy restaurant that is within the largest store in the little city you live in. Your not thinking about having been in service 45 years prior to this date, your thinking about what your going to order for lunch. When you hear someone saying thank you, you look around an see no one but yourself standing there when you realize they are talking to you. You politely say thanks & wonder if they are missing a sandwich from the picnic basket. When they make a statement you were in the Army an you answer yes back in the sixties, wondering how they knew when they announce they saw the Army Emblem on your cap that you forgot you were wearing.

Now I'm sure there are some that will read this and still wonder how just saying thank you is going to make a difference. Let me state it this way. The men & women coming home from a war zone along with those also returning home from foreign duty face stress levels way above what the medical field states is unhealthy. They have been away from home, family, friends and their normal daily activities. They were made to live differently than their mind and body where use too.

They are now returned to that live with no preparation other than counting down the days until that day to return home comes. When I was preparing to return home from duty in Germany we said we were counting down to the return to the land of the round door knobs, they didn't have round door knobs at the time in Germany. Then we were shipped stateside and released from duty.

So every time someone says thank you or shows any other act of kindness helps bring them back to what we classify as normal way of life. What really shocked me though is how I felt after hearing the words said to me for my service some forty-six years after the fact. I felt as giddy and proud of myself as if it was only yesterday that I came home and I now only truly understand how I made those men & women I have said those very words to today feel, it is a feeling I will never forget.