I’d like to take a moment to offer my heartfelt thanks to the 25 million surviving American veterans. This is their day, and they deserve every bit of recognition they can get. Normally, I’d follow that up by saying “happy Veteran’s Day” to all of America, but this year I don’t think I will. You see, all around our country, millions of American families are enjoying a three-day weekend, having family gatherings, and maybe having a cookout if the climate allows. But there are millions of among them who will not give the meaning of the holiday any thought at all—not one iota. And among those are millions more who have never once given a thought to joining the military and serving their country. It seems there are millions of Americans who think of Veteran’s Day as being some sort of job entitlement—a paid day off—and nothing more…people who have no inkling of who or what brought them the holiday in the first place. Those are the people who should endeavor to remember that there are well more than a million men and women in our armed services at any given time. In peacetime and in time of war, there are always hundreds of thousands of them stationed overseas, away from family and friends. These thousands cannot be with their loved ones on their birthdays, or on Thanksgiving, or on Christmas. Indeed, due to the nature of their duties, many thousands of them do not even have the luxury of enjoying a day off on Veteran’s Day, their day, much less on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

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