Do you know a hero when you see one? There is currently some conflict in CO about erecting a statue of a hero: Navy SEAL Daniel Dietz of Littleton CO. He was on a 4 man mission behind enemy lines in Afghanistan in June 2005, when the SEALs were out numbered but fought beyond bravely on. Of the four only one survived. Type SEALs, Daniel Dietz, Michael Patrick Murphy, Matthew Axleson, Medal of Honor into your search engine read… because of their actions on that day–they ensured/enabled the survival of their fellow brother.
We are surrounded by real heroes-and many time we don’t even know it. Because of them, others live. Because of them, we live in peace and freedom in the midst of war and strife. Because of them, we have hope.
This link will connect you to 10 Lessons learned from a janitor.
http://www.cwoauscg.org/history/history_janitor.htm
Some veterans/heroes bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain haunted look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - - - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity .Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.
You can’t tell a vet/hero just by looking.He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in DaNang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn’t come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor that has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say “Thank You.” That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU”.
