Happy Veteran's Day!

91bravo

91bravo

Gold Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
28,603
From one to another, Happy Veteran's Day to all who have served. Past, present and future. God bless the USA!

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Thank you all!

The Bakersfield National Cemetery, (its actually up in the mountains not in Bakersfield):

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My parents are there:

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The knife he found in the trunk of a car he bought for parts. Said it was very similar to what he carried.
 
Happy Veteran's Day!
I think I posted this before. Me in 1966, and Dad in 1941.
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And here's a pic from MCAS El Toro, CA from sometime around '69. You can't really see, but I'm sitting in front, second from the right, without a cover.

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And some knife content.
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I always hesitate to say “Happy” Veterans Day. Not being a veteran myself, I go out of my way to say “thank you for your service” instead.

This is a pic of me in the foreground any my patient/friend John Slavish. Slav was larger than life. Legendary linebacker at University of Delaware - he famously knocked a freshman Joe Biden unconscious during the football team tryouts. He went on to serve 2 tours in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne and lived the life of a patriotic family man who served his community well. I was gonna give him a new UD Football Jersey today for Veteran’s Day but he passed 2 days ago from a chronic illness. I know he’s a stranger to y’all but forgive me.

Thank you Slav and thank you to all you veterans. You are the best.🇺🇸

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Thanks to all who have and are serving. I have a lot of veterans in my family, alive and passed on.

My maternal great-grandfather fought in WW1, stationed in Italy. His son, my great uncle, was a navigator on B-24 liberators in the pacific theater of WWII.

My paternal grandfather was a purple heart vet in WWII, 63rd infantry, fought at the battle of the bulge. I have his M1 Carbine. I'm the only family member he told his war story to.

My father barely missed the Vietnam draft.

One of my uncles was in the coast guard, but I did not know him well.

My cousin graduated from Annapolis, was a captain in the radio command unit in the marines, one tour of Iraq, one of Afghanistan, though he never saw actual combat. He's now an FBI agent supervisor.

My cousin-in-law graduated 1st from West Point. Captain in the 173rd airborne brigade before moving on to join the army rangers.

I have my grandfathers purple heart and some of his regalia from WWII.
 
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I wrote a couple of war poems to celebrate the day.

Notes

At a molecular level
I saw it bend
While digging around the marrow
My mouth full of mud
Clods of dirt filled the gaps
Of my boots
I try to draw a panicked breath
Taking in the stinging, poisoned air
Turned into an unmaker
Bled and in blood
A forlorn mixture of love notes
And broken dreams

Youth
(In honorem of our fallen heros)

We're too young to drink
Too young to smoke
Can't cast any vote
But we are at the perfect age to die
This old rifle, it's as foreign to me
As those who say, are my enemy
While most of us lay open
Famished, toiling in sprung mud
Like blind pigs, the smell of iron and smoke
Fill our little lungs,
Given a bayonet larger than my arm
And a rifle longer than my leg
We are ordered to aim
at other weaping children
In the other ditch.
 
I always feel a bit uncomfortable when people thank me for my service. I totally appreciate the sentiment as, if I recall, only 1% of the population serves/served in the military. But I really loved my 21 years in the Army; would not have traded it for anything. So I thank the military for taking me.
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
I always feel a bit uncomfortable when people thank me for my service. I totally appreciate the sentiment as, if I recall, only 1% of the population serves/served in the military. But I really loved my 21 years in the Army; would not have traded it for anything. So I thank the military for taking me.
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You did your part, now buy a knife and use it up, cheers
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
I always feel a bit uncomfortable when people thank me for my service. I totally appreciate the sentiment as, if I recall, only 1% of the population serves/served in the military. But I really loved my 21 years in the Army; would not have traded it for anything. So I thank the military for taking me.
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Similar for me, I’m a reservist a couple years in with a few years left on my contract. I love my job within the marine corps and I love the guys I get to do my job with but in peacetime there’s not really much for a machine gunner like myself to do except review the same manuals and do the same drills, shoot the same ranges, disassemble and clean the same guns over and over again along with the occasional cross training. It’s like practicing a sport for years and never getting to play.

Money can be hard to come by so I take my military discounts and free stuff where I can but I’ve never really known what to say to a “thank you for your service” and don’t know if I’ll ever consider myself a veteran once I get out unless some shit pops off and I get sent somewhere.

Anyways, since this is a knife forum, here’s my winkler I had on my belt for a good chunk of the summer during a training exercise :
https://imgur.com/Wr6y396
 
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