Daddy, What is a Vet? by ????

Mark Hawkins was/is a Man I served with on board the U.S.S. Sierra AD-18.
He was/is a Mentor and Friend that instructed me and taught me different things and how to maintain proper various watches down in the forward engine room.  I found him just recently on Facebook and this is one of his posts that he found and put up for all to see a couple of months ago and I only found it fitting for today.  
Neither of us knows who wrote this: It is NOT Mine -- if Anyone Does Know or runs across it and finds out Who -- Please let me know as this is Just Fantastic and I want to give them Credit for an Awesome Piece.

DADDY, WHAT IS A VET? 

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service:

a missing limb, a jagged scar,

a certain 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 ally 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 just by looking. 

What is a vet? 

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 Da Nang. 

He is the POW who went away one person

and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL. 

He is the Fort Polk drill instructor

who has never seen combat -

but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy,

no-account rednecks and gang members into Soldiers,

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 any of 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 member of the "Greatest Generation"

not because of his age,

but because of sacrifices he has made.

He is what is right in the world, a sure bet.

He is a member of an honored brotherhood, he is a vet.

He is a soldier and a savior and

a sword against the darkness,

and he is nothing more than the finest and,

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.

Hope you all Liked.


I Thought it was just .... Well, just know I think this is a GREAT Piece!