This Veterans Day I take a look back at the words commitment and sacrifice and think how those two words really sum up all our veterans and their families have done for our community and country.

I think of my father being young at 19 and going into Vietnam, being stationed in Cambodia even though reports were made that troops where never there. I think about my mom, newly married, receiving the Western Union telegram of my father’s injury and flying to visit him, scared not knowing much information. Returning home to a community where you can’t even wear your uniform for fear you will be spit on, or what it is like to try to carry on knowing some of your “brothers and sisters in uniform” never returned. My father and mother never spoke much of the war growing up; it was always present in the sense that I was taught to have pride in my country and those who serve to protect others; and to know that the gratitude that we have goes far beyond just the service members, but also to the families that love them.

Today I look at the medals my father has and the American flag that graces the wall beside it, and I am honored to be the wife, granddaughter, daughter, cousin and niece of a family that has served. Veterans Day is always special for me. It’s a day to remember, take a moment to pause and thank those who commit and sacrifice for all of us.

 

Laura Nechanicky-Booth

Duluth