A salute to those who serve country

Nov. 11, 2009, has become a very special Veteran’s Day.

The events that took place at Fort Hood military base took care of that. While Veterans Day is set aside to honor those who have served, and are still serving in our armed forces, this year, the tragedy at Fort Hood, with 13 dead and another 29 injured in the violent eruption of hate, points out the danger those veterans are in at all times.

This Veteran’s Day, the United States is involved in two wars – in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while war almost always produces heroes, it does not always produce friends. If your friendly neighbor constantly greeted you with a loaded gun, you might not consider him so friendly.

President Barack Obama has lowered the level of antagonism emanating from the White House but our neighbors in Iraq and Afghanistan still regard U.S. soldiers as an occupying force.

For that reason, our soldiers and sailors are constantly in harm's way, and eight years later, while the pace of U.S. fatalities has slowed considerably, death is still a constant companion. We are still nearing 5,000 U.S. dead, and thousands more wounded. Iraqi and Afghanistan casualties are thousands and thousands more.

Veteran’s Day is differentiated from Memorial Day, which specifically reveres those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Veteran’s Day recognizes that all who serve give of themselves, and put their lives on the line for their country.

The 34,000 soldiers who populate Fort Hood put their lives on the line. Many of them were preparing for deployment overseas. They had been trained for warfare, and also trained to understand that in this war zone, it was not clear what the enemy looked like.

For one bloody afternoon, the enemy looked just like them, wearing the same uniform and swearing allegiance to the same flag. Those servicemen did not know that they would be called upon to make that ultimate sacrifice that day.

But they proudly wore the uniform that says they were ready to do so, foreign or domestic.

Veteran’s Day is recognized for the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month, in observance of the month, hour and day when the armistice was signed to end World War I, naively called the war to end all wars.

Unfortunately, each Veterans Day has served to remind us that several wars later - World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Desert Storm and the current ones – war is still with us, and U.S. troops are serving in hot spots around the globe.

We are proud of all those who serve, and those who served, and we salute them, especially in this time of war.

On this Veteran’s Day, honor our veterans.