Me, too. One of these days I'm going to do like I read about in the Dear Abby column some time back, and buy a soldier/sailor/Marine/airman his or her dinner, just as a thank-you for their service.
Not to dampen the mood, but the caveat is that anyone can buy a cap/tee with some affiliation to the military. I was at a gun show here in San Antone yesterday visiting a friend of mine that had a vender's booth. There was a young man that had a Special Forces cap on. My friend inquired what SF Group he had been in. To his credit, the young man said he'd never been in Special Forces, but friends of his were. Many times imposters try to BS their way thru a conversation like this, and they get exposed PDQ. Alla that said, when some stranger comes up to me and thanks me for my service, I feel proud of having done what I did, and the bad juju melts away.
there are agencies you can go thru to write letters to the troops I believe maybe get a BT letter writing campaign to those that may not get letters like our kids
Just wanted to remind all of you vets and parents of military to be extra proud tomorrow. God Bless and THank all of you!:flag::icon_banana:
ROTFL, my "pride days" are especially split this year - my Son will turn 40 on (you guessed it) Veteran's Day! :flag: Each and every day is perfect to be proud of the Men and Women who are working in service to our Country... Then again, if you are reading THIS thread you already feel that way.
you know ..I had to work 11 1/2 hours today...but got a phone call about 5pm....from Ashley. Not sure if it was cuz of the holiday I got to talk to her..but got to talk to her about ten minutes...she was sobbing like crazy and I said you can do this and she said yeah I know....just when I hear your voice I reaize how much I miss you. She said she got her mile down...made it by a second, she went on and on about how much fun she is having with her wingman and that everyday is getting easier. She said she just feels bad cuz we got so close before she left and I said we'll be even closer when I see you again. She said I'll be proud when I see her name tag and I said I already am. So this may be one of the best days I've ever had. Ever. So thanks BT for giving me a place to shed a tear, to tear off calendar days. It's really helped a lot
:flag: Your post made ME cry too, Deb. I'm so happy for both of you!! Only TWO MORE MONTHS---to the day!---until my little girl comes home.............
Folks, I have jes spent the most incredible 4 days with the greatest group of guys imaginable. An entity known as the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association had their annual reunion here in San Antone, and a group of Cobra Gunship pilots invited me and several of my Special Forces buddies to attend. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to see a few of my old SF buds, I accepted. Turns out these gunship pilots flew in support of our missions. As I talked to a few of them, it dawned on me that, because of the bravery of these guys, I'm here today... many times they flew into the teeth of immense peril to provide enough firepower with their rockets, 40 mm canons and miniguns, so that other brave Huey pilots could come in and extract us out of harm's way. These guys were dubbed the Panthers, so naturally they had to call themselves the Pink Panthers. And they wanted to honor us...huh?? Turns out they hold me and my buds in higher esteem than we do ourselves. The running joke back in the day was that we thought they were nuts for flying in extremely dangerous circumstances to come and get us, whilst they thought we were nuts for getting offa the choppers in the first place to go and do what it was we were doing!! I spent a majority of the time shaking hands, hugging, and profusely thanking these guysfor what they did for me/us back then; they have remarkable memories for details of terrain features and such, some of them were drawing maps of target areas on scratch paper, and I wondered about that. Then it occurred to me that I'd been in somma those hot spots only a few times, whilst they were going in there very single day!! Tears were shed for those of my comrades, and theirs, that didn't make it home, but most of my tears were tears of gratitude...what manner of men would fly into the teeth of massive anti-aircraft fire to save a few scruffy Green Berets?? The answer, of course, is the same kind of men that would graciously invite those now older,balding, overweight guys to their party!! I post pics when I get'em up/down loaded.
Toby, that is FANTASTIC!!! Thanks for sharing that with us......and what a way to celebrate our nation's birthday:flag: SAAAAAAAAA-LUTE!!!!!!!!!
This is the VHPA marching in the 4th of July Parade in New Braunfels, Texas- This is the unit- Their emblem- The Missing Pilot's Table at the banquet- Somma my bestest friends in the whole world; the debonair fella in the Green Beret is, of course, Yours Truly-
Those are some nice shots, my friend..........I'm so glad you got to go to this event, and you do look quite handsome in your Green Beret.:flag::five::bow::clap:
