What is a Vet?

He is a cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored 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 38 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 a 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 rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each others’ backs.

He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and metals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence in 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 down 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 his nightmares come.

He is an ordinary, yet extraordinary human being — a person who offered some of his most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is solider and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest 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 ever 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."

When you see the US flag, salute it, and you will be saluting every Vet.