Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day and in honor of all of our veterans, I would like to pass on a quote from a friend of my grandfather's who served in WWII. He told me this many years ago when I was a small child, but I never forgot it.

It was Veteran's Day and I was in 3rd or 4th grade; old enough to ask what a veteran was. My grandfather told me that his friend Elmer was a veteran and he could explain it to me from the vet's point of view.

Elmer told me that veterans were the people who went out to meet any enemies who wanted to attack our people and stop them even if it meant being injured or losing their own lives; and that Veteran's Day was a day set aside to honor and respect them for putting their health and lives on the line for the rest of us.

I was dazzled by this heroism and told him I thought it would be wonderful to be so brave and that maybe my friends and I could be veterans some day. Maybe, he said, but "I pray for the time to come when we no longer need a Veteran's Day...because that will be the day that there are no longer any veterans and that will mean that the world has learned to live in peace."

So, on this and every Veteran's Day, I honor our vets...but I pray for Peace.