As we have just finished celebrating Veteran's Day, Novemeber 11. Most of us will just move on with our regular real estate, individual or family activities in preparation for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I would ask each of you to keep our service men and women in your thoughts and prayers throughout this holiday season. More than 60% of the homeless people in America are Veterans. I would also like to ask you to place one more present under the tree to be sent or given to a one of the many veterans who won't be home this Christmas season. Thanks.
A Different Christmas Poem
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, Transforming the yard to a winter delight. The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep. In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear. Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, And I crept to the door just to see who was near. Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night, A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold. Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child. "What are you doing?" I asked without fear, "Come in this moment, it's freezing out here! Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve, You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.. To the window that danced with a warm fire's light Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right, I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line, That separates you from the darkest of times. No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me. My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December," Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers." My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ', And now it is my turn and so, here I am. I've not seen my own son in more than a while, But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, The red, white, and blue... an American flag. I can live through the cold and the being alone, Away from my family, my house and my home. I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat. I can carry the weight of killing another, Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.. Who stand at the front against any and all, To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright, Your family is waiting and I'll be all right." "But isn't there something I can do, at the least, "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast? It seems all too little for all that you've done, For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, "Just tell us you love us, and never forget. To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone, To stand your own watch, no matter how long. For when we come home, either standing or dead, To know you remember we fought and we bled. Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S.service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN 30th Naval Construction Regiment OIC, Logistics Cell One Al Taqqadum, Iraq
How To Help Us
We are asking individuals, schools, churches, and businesses around the U.S. to participate by having their students, congregations, and customers write letters, cards, email messages, or prayer messages and mail them or bring them to the address below. We will forward your appreciation message to a service man or women either active duty or retired through our many contacts. Your messages will also be delivered to many USO’s and Veteran’s Hospitals for distribution.
HOW TO MAIL
We suggest using the Post Office's Priority Mail. For only $4.05 you can send a pound of appreciation letters/cards that will be delivered to us in about 2-3 days. The Post Office will even give you the box!
REMEMBER -- IF MAILING LETTERS/CARDS IN BULK BE SURE THEY ARE NOT IN INDIVIDUAL ENVELOPES AND THEY ARE BUNDLED WITH RUBBER BANDS!
WHERE TO MAIL YOUR CARDS/LETTERS:
A MILLION THANKS c/o LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL 2222 North Santiago Blvd.Orange, CA92867
Shauna Fleming, founder of A Million Thanks campaign, displays some thank you letters she will be forwarding on to military service members. Be sure you send your appreciation letters soon!!
RULES and GUIDELINES
All letters and/or cards will be screened for security reasons.
IF YOU ARE SENDING MORE THAN ONE LETTER/CARD DO NOT PLACE IN INDIVIDUAL ENVELOPES.
We reserve the right to eliminate those messages that are political in nature and that do not reflect a positive message in the spirit of National Military Appreciation Month.
Handmade cards are preferred but please follow the guidelines below.
If you are mailing letters/cards in bulk ( 100 or more from a school, company or organization), BUNDLE them in units of 100 using two rubber bands wrapped one lengthwise and the other widthwise. This aids us in sorting.
GUIDELINES FOR HANDMADE THANK YOU/APPRECIATION CARDS
Any size card will be accepted.
Please do not use glitter on cards
Unfortunately, candy or other food items cannot be accepted and should not be included or attached to cards.
Military personnel love to communicate with us! You can include your name, address or email address if you so desire.
Photos of the sender, sender’s family, church, or classroom participants can add a personal touch to your card. Photos must be appropriate.
The more positive the message the better! Care should be taken not to refer to anything that may cause grief or uneasiness to the military reader who may be serving active duty. (i.e., “I hope you don’t get killed” or “Do you miss your family?”)
Cards for wounded Vterans may also go to:
Operation AC Attn: Wounded Soldier Cards 560 Peoples Plaza Box 121 Newark, DE 19702
I remember that picture from some time ago, and a poem very similar to this that made the rounds last year about this time.
This poem is so touching and powerful. They most assuredly matter to me, and hopefully to many, many others as well. I posted a salute to veterans and current military in my blog on Veterans Day.
Brought tears to my eyes. My youngest son ( I think they suggested this in school) asked me to buy him 10 Christmas cards so he can draw pictures and mail them to the soldiers. Dave, is that an address that we can send cards to? thank you for the post..
Dave good stuff. I was at the football game yesterday they had a fly over, two F15's it was great. They panned around the stadium showing fans throughout the game. They landed on some service men and woman and the stadium cheered it was a great feeling
Christine - I have added a couple of contact options to the blog for you and others who may wish to send cards or thank you notes. Thank you for your interest and support.
You can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Irag. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. It is FREE and it only takes a second.
I didn't realize that statistic... > 60% of homeless folks are veterans. Any theories behind why this is the case? Do organizations such as the VA focus on these people?
Dave, thank you for bringing the service of our brave soldiers into our hearts and thoughts at this time. As an Army brat myself, I am very sensitive at holidays to the needs of our soldiers. God Bless may their families take comfort in their bravery and service.
It has been common knowledge for a couple of decades that many of the homeless were Veterans. The significant increase of Veterans started after the Viet Nam War. The American civilians weren't the only ones who were conflicted about why we were there and what was the result of their service to their country. I, too, am a Viet Nam era Veteran who was spat on by war protestors. It's like anything else, unless you've been through it, it's hard to understand, much less explain it.
Things happen in combat that change a person's psyche forever. Many guys never got over all of the carnage, killing, and injuries incurred or inflicted. Many guys and some women came back from the war experience totally addicted to a wide variety of dugs. For 10 years after Viet Nam, most military services were not equipped to deal with the trauma, drugs and psychological damage incurred by many thousands of soldiers. The Veteran's Administration was swamped and could only provide limited support.
Many Veterans left their hometowns, marriages, friends, jobs and everything they knew, except the memories of being in combat. They couldn't talk with anyone about it. Other Veterans would try to be helpful, but those who were traumatized, needed much more assistance than occasional conversations.
Not getting help and not being able to live the status quo, many thousands of Veterans simply left, didn't tell anyone they were leaving, didn't know where they were going; just simply left, like a fresh start might erase all the pain. They couldn't keep jobs, didn't care about money, eventually quit paying rent, had their vehicles repossessed; and just spiraled down to where there was no place left, but the street and occasional county, city or church shelters.
Their needs were minimal and, that's how they lived.
The Veteran's Administration has gotten smarter. They have used their nationwide network of VA Hospitals and Medical Centers to try and reach out to veterans. They have conducted surveys to better understand which parts of the country and cities where a greater proportion of homeless veterans chose to reside. Typically, where they will be left alone to a greater degree. The medical community finally figured out that people who go to war are scarred for life, whether or not they were physically wounded. It’s now called post-traumatic stress syndrome. .For the last 15 years, they have made lots of strides in proving services to men and women from the first conflict with Iraq and now, also for the people coming back from the current effort in Iraq.
My oldest son served with the 3rd Infantry Division went it went into Bagdad on March 19, 2003. He later told me that being “scared shitless” was how you survived. When he was home for a visit last month, we talked about his year in Iraq and, how it has changed his life. He still believes that getting rid of Saddam was the right thing to do. He spent a year with the Iraqi people and still believes they will overcome the sectarian strife and become a free nation. For him to believe otherwise diminishes the values of the Iraqi and American lives lost in this effort. My son also knows veterans from both Iraq conflicts that are currently, by choice, homeless. Several of them live in their cars, work part-time jobs for gas and food, refuse offers for assistance and, occasionally will stay at shelters.
Clearly, there are no simple answers as to why some men are homeless more than 35 years after serving in Viet Nam. The armed services and the medical community are beginning to understand how it happens and, they are making limited progress in providing treatment. When you see homeless men and women, please keep in mind, they not necessarily or automatically bums or bad people. Some of them, many of them are veterans who are not ready to come home. They still have one last obstacle to overcome and one last battle to win – to have hope.
I have great respect and admiration for our service men - they are doing the country's hardest and most dangerous work to keep us all safe back here at home from the most vilanous and wiley opponent any army has ever faced.
However, the initial photograph, of a young soldier looking tired and prematurely aged, with his lips dry and cracked, irks me and takes away pretty much any sympathy I could have for him (personally) and reflects badly thereby on his cohorts. Perhaps that premature aging and dry lip problem is because he's making sure that if the enemy he's fighting with his guy doesn't get him, his cigarette will.
This got me so frustrated (with that particular soldier's stupidity in life choices and the irony of the photo) I broke down and poured out my thoughts on non-smoking buildings.
As much of an anti-smoker as I am, I didn't even "see" the cigarette! Emotions run strong for brave people like him who have volunteered to protect us. As for me, he can light-up whatever he wants!
Thanks to all who have, are, and are going to serve our country!
I think it's important to realize that when someone says they do not support our administration's position/s on some aspect of our foreign policy that this in no way is a reflection of their feelings about our military. These young men and women are serving their country - our country. We are not in any way compelled to support our foreign policy; we should support our men and women in uniform at every opportunity. Thank you for the good information on this Blog on where greeting cards may be sent.
David -I did not realize that you had posted this poem as well - even a month before I did. Thank you for supporting our troops and to Michael Jordan above who brought it to my attention.
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So good to share these thoughts of our soldiers, especially at this time of year. I have a few ideas for our military on my blog, too;) I come from a military family and know firsthand how much families miss their loved soldiers. Thank you Dave, enjoy your Christmas!
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Posted by 
Dave,
I remember that picture from some time ago, and a poem very similar to this that made the rounds last year about this time.
This poem is so touching and powerful. They most assuredly matter to me, and hopefully to many, many others as well. I posted a salute to veterans and current military in my blog on Veterans Day.
Very nice to have this poem, Dave!
Ann Cummings