Some gave all

On this Memorial weekend, I do like to think about the veterans. "Thank you for your service" has become a perfunctory cliche of sorts these days but, I do thank them for their service. Peace time or storming the beach at Normandy, the military is not an easy job. For some it was Sergeant Bilko, others, never came home. Do not confuse the two. A young body blown to bits on a beach is not a bar brawl in 'Dago with your buddies.

I think about the young men who never made it home. The men of WWII seem to think more about the dead than most. The Greatest Generation seems to have paid the dead the most respect, in my lifetime at least. Most didn't consider themselves heroes. "The heroes" they often said, "didn't make it home". I think they knew that they didn't survive the impossible Hell on earth of D-Day or any firefight by anything but luck, just goddamned luck. A bullet, a bomb doesn't care how well-trained it's target is. Good looks, religion, kindness or toughness do not matter. Dead is fucking dead. Most combat veterans probably know this. Plato said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war".

Others have to live with it. They had to come home with memories our greatest filmakers can only begin to scratch the surface of the horror. How can you do the math on the opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" before you realize, frightful as that was, reality is far worse? Many of our dad's came home from Europe or the Pacific, cold-blooded killers. The business of killing had a slower pace then and there was time to decompress after our enemies surrendered but, there was still life to live with memories of war, for decades to come. In VietNam, a man could be in a free-fire zone one day and on a plane home the next, with the same decades to live with the memories. I imagine war today is faster in all respects. New and improved. Though I don't think anyone will ever find a good way to deal with it.

So much of the military is luck of the draw, I think. Even in WWII when the whole world was at stake, some men never left the states. This was whether they wanted to or not. Ted Williams, the greatest hitter EVER in baseball , was a USMC fighter pilot. Actor Jimmy Stewart piloted bombing missions in Europe. John Wayne stayed home and made movies. Who, of the three, is remembered as a war hero?

We could have lost George Bailey to anti-aircraft fire over Dusseldorf. The last man to hit .400 in the majors could have been out-manuvered by a Japanese Zero. But, we'd always have John Fucking Wayne.

That's how life and death works.

I've written before about phony war veterans. I don't like the one's who pad their resumes. I think someone should be proud enough about, say, their service in the Marines without claiming crap about 47 combat jumps in Viet Nam. Google is my friend. Google is not the friend of someone who thinks that the Marines made more than zero combat jumps in 'Nam. Same with fellas who were in the Marines but missed wars by a few years. Training for war is not war. Practice isn't the Super Bowl. It's not even a Sunday game, mid season.

I know why they do it. War looks great on the resume. "I have killed before. I'll do it again. Do NOT fuck with me!" Old Bob and Barry Gaker were like that at work. Hundreds of guys are like that on the internet. John Fucking Wayne was like that in real life. He didn't claim service but, don't most people think that he did win the war? Which war? All of them!

It's all about portfolio. If you want to add credence to your conservative views on the internet, it might help to be a veteran. Combat seems to be a major plus. Shooting libs and putting them in concentration camps seems like a darn good idea from a guy who has "...been there...ya know..." I mean, you may be a security guard now- ARMED, I might add- but, once upon a time you were in the bush...in The 'Nam, man....

I wish people would stick to the truth and accept themselves as they are. That should be good enough. It is and was good enough for most of the men and women who preceded you and thank their God everyday that they were not killed and didn't have to take another's life. Do not cheapen the hell that other men have been through by claiming their actions as your own. It just doesn't work that way. At least it shouldn't.