Thank You

God Bless America!


When I was a young girl living in Adams, Massachusetts, I was privileged each Veteran's Day to be able to watch my Dad, and members of the various Veteran's groups, march down Park Street behind the Adams High School band. I was proud of Dad but I'm not sure just how well I understood then what this day truly meant to them or to us as Americans.

As they marched, walked, or sometimes were wheeled or driven past us, my friends and I waved our flags and celebrated the day off from school. We waved to our own fathers and uncles who had served in WWI or Korea. We pointed out the Grandfathers who had served in WWI. There were a dozen or more men, some in uniform who had been in the Spanish American War and even one very elderly man who always rode in the first convertible who was Adam's last living veteran of the Civil War.

Marching with the men, were a smaller group of women who had served with the WAVES, the WRENS and the WACS. Near the end of the parade there were a few more convertibles filled with Gold Star mothers.

What we young girls didn't realize then as we flirted and waved at the boys in the band, was that we were looking at the future veterans of the Vietnam war. Nor did we realize that some of those boys wouldn't come back to march again. And, of course, it never occurred to us that someday our own sons and daughters might be in Afghanistan, or Iraq.

But even if we did not understand it all then, we still were being respectful because these were special people. And those special people were honoring us by marching past and letting us have the opportunity to feel pride in our country.

We didn't always know it as we watched and saluted the passing flags, but through these brave men and women , marching past with pride,
God was blessing America.

Through the women and men who are serving today through military service, He still is.

Thank you.

See ya down the road,

Yarntangler