Issue date: 11/10/09 Section: Opinions

I would be shocked to hear you tell me you do not know a single veteran. The odds are just too terrific.

See, veterans are everywhere and you may not realize it. Your grandfathers fought during World War II or in Korea; uncles and fathers in Vietnam; friends and neighbors in the Gulf War or Bosnia and Kosovo; and brothers, sisters and classmates in Afghanistan or Iraq and, sometimes, both.

I spent 448 days in Iraq between 2003 and 2004. See, Veterans Day has an interesting past.

In 1926, Congress proclaimed it Armistice Day in honor of the end of World War I. In 1954, President Eisenhower signed legislation changing it to Veterans Day - a day in honor of all living veterans of military service.

Honor those veterans in your life. Honor those veterans not in your life. We are literally everywhere.

We are your family, your friends. We are in your classes. We are those who clean your classrooms, and maintain this university. A few of us even teach you in your classes.

We are the people you see with close-cropped hair. We are the ones who shave everyday, or, conversely, rarely at all. We wear our old uniforms mixed with civilian clothes because we know that they are the most comfortable clothes we will ever know - because we had to spend weeks straight in the same set.

We are those who have gone into a very uncertain future, not knowing if we would see our families again. We have traveled thousands of miles away, to be in extremely foreign countries, in extremely dangerous situations.

We have gone weeks and months without hearing the voices of loved ones. We have woken up after just a few hours of shut-eye knowing that today could be our last on Earth.

Most of us have seen more horrors before the age of 22 than most civilians ever will. And by that same age, our bodies have taken more abuse than that of someone twice our age.

A veteran's life is not an easy one. We walk around each day, carrying the physical and mental burden of our service, but also the thought in the back of our minds that maybe we have not done enough for America, this great country of ours. And if you do not agree with what they have done during their service, do not blame them. We were just following orders.

My favorite quote about veterans is this: "A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'"

I believe that rather sums up what a veteran is. We have dedicated ourselves to something greater than ourselves.

Wednesday is Veterans Day, and I implore you to attend the ceremony at Old Main at 10:30 a.m. and honor those veterans that you know in your life.

I also ask you to honor those same veterans everyday. Write them a letter, be patient with them if their minds wander, become impatient, or if they get easily angered. Send them a package filled with love.

Your small sacrifice will definitely be appreciated by those sacrificing so much.

Eric Hiltner is a senior journalism major and can be reached at 581-7942 or DENopinions@gmail.com.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.

Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.

Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.

If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.