Today Let me Say

[ER]

If ever you've so loved your country, your fellow man, or even the security of a recurring paycheck, enough to endure the onion breath of a drill sergeant shouting into your face at a three-inch distance when it's 90 degrees and pouring rain and you've slept twenty minutes in two days.... if you've ever risked having an IED scrape your penis off along with half your lower GI tract.... if you've ever had to sleep on bare ground in the Afghan sun, or hot-bunked it on a nuclear submarine, the farts of the last fellow still decorating the compartment.... if you've ever had to leave on a ten-month deployment, waving goodbye to your crying children while having to keep a stiff upper lip in front of your colleagues, though wanting to cry yourself.... if ever you've had to climb a fence at Parris Island on the second day of your period while cramps are knotting you up inside, or woken up in the dark feeling a spider crawling across your face, or been scared s**tless when the lieutenant taps you to go on point through a stretch of swamp that's way too quiet.... if you've ever had to spend the rest of your life hearing the death rattle of the eighteen-year-old German kid you bayonetted as your overran his foxhole.... if you've ever had jungle rot in your butt crack courtesy of three months in "the Canal, " or screamed while your burning helicopter hit the sands in Anbar, leaving you to run free dragging a broken limb behind you... if you've ever stood up to serve, and come home to be spat on by some ingrate who calls you baby killer....or served for two years and spent the next forty going to PTSD group therapy at the VA....

This is the one day of the year set aside to thank you.

Gee. Feels a little inadequate somehow, doesn't it?

[indianasmith]

Well, I can't speak for all veterans.  I served because I wanted to - I mean, yes, it was nice that they paid for my college and all, but I think I would have gone regardless.  I had the typical adolescent fantasies about "seeing the elephant" as they called it in the Civil War, but truthfully, military service was a thing in each generation of my family.  My Dad served in WW2, my grandmother's uncles served in World War I, my paternal grandmother's grandfather served in the Texas Revolution, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War (and died of old age at 93!), so I thought it was my duty to go.

I was fortunate that I never saw combat.  I got buzzed by Soviet MiGs a couple of times, rode out a typhoon in a Knox-class frigate, and survived a collision at sea - but many endured much worse, and some never came home.

I honor them all, but when someone thanks me for my service, I just say: "It was an honor to serve."
And leave it at that.

Fair winds and following seas to all our vets today!

[Trevor]

As the son of a veteran, thank you to all the veterans out there and the ones, like my Dad who are no longer with us.

We don't owe you a lot, just everything. 

[retrorussell]

Happy Veterans Day from a Veterans Hospital employee!

[javakoala]

I hate the fact the VA started listening to stakeholders over veterans, but I love my veterans and their families. They were some of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with, and if you talked TO them and LISTENED, they would end the calls by calling me "brother" or "bubba". Made me want to cry. Still does. I miss those wonderful folks.

I don't miss the VA, and resent the move towards privatization, which I was warning my supervisors about 13 years ago. Now it is becoming an major issue.

[Rev. Powell]

Happy veteran's day to our bad movie veterans!

[chainsaw midget]

You're welcome.

[RCMerchant]

Yet you supported Donald Trump. Who is a destroyer of our constitution which our vets fought for.
Hypocrite. And if you deny it, I Can look it up in the archives. You were a Trumpet.
ER- you are are full of s**t.

[ER]

Aw, RC, if I was as sick as you I'd probably be angry too. Having experienced just a tiny bit of what it's like to face a health challenge, I can't imagine how hard you must have it, not even being able to walk to your mailbox. That must be a completely emasculating way for a man to live. If you need to unwind by throwing shade at me and being intolerant about other people's right to personal views, hey, it's the least I can do to help you feel better about your life. Just hang in there, brother, the goal is in sight! 

[RCMerchant]

ER- my health has NOTHING to do with your support for traitors.
You are a phony.

[ER]

Shame you had to say all this, Ronny, since I'd planned for a while that tomorrow, which marks a year to the day since I started those This Day in  Your History entries, would be a good stopping point, and I'd decided it's my last day here for the foreseeable future, maybe permanently. I wasn't going to say anything about it, just go, but I'd rather it be known than have it look like you ran me off. (Which would be way beyond your ability.) I would have rather parted on friendlier terms with you, since you never know  when you'll never hear from someone again. As it is, at least I'll know how you truly felt about me in your final reckoning after fifteen years.

And I'll know in the end you were an intolerant drunk

Stay healthy, Ron.

[RCMerchant]

You're so full of s**t, it's sick.
John left because of you and Indy's backstabbing. (sorry Indy- but you are the reason All Hallows left.) I'm about to leave too.

[RCMerchant]

f**k you. You're sneaky 2 faced hypocrite.
I been a member of this board long before your phoney ass came along.

[ER]

John left because he could dish it out but couldn't take it. He picked fights for years and then like all bullies cried when he got his nose bloodied. He tried to sneak around and talk behind my back whimpering like a b***h about getting his feelings hurt after trying to hurt mine for years, and got embarrassed to be caught in the act of backbiting and gossip. He is anything but the victim.

We all know you're going to leave soon, Ron, that's no secret. You've made that obvious.

Me, I been planning my own departure, maybe not as permanent as yours, and even posted "six days" last week, marking tomorrow, when I planned to go. I planted a lot of clues actually, if you look back.

So like I said, shame you had to waste words. I needed a break ages ago but wanted to do a year of those diary entries. Tomorrow is day 365, and mission accomplished.

You like to pretend to hate bigotry and be a tolerant person, but you can't stand when people practice their right to think differently from you. You're one of the most bigoted people I've ever encountered.

A sad little man.

[RCMerchant]

What a self centered hypocrite you are. You love yourself so much. It's pathetic. You're so great and better than anyone. I used to like you. You became a  self centered phony. " Look how cool I am!' Phony. You been here a long time- this is about BAD movies- which you have no clue about. You're a phoney from day one.