I've spent the day watching several movies and specials about wars, veterans and memorial day. Very moving. I want to thank all of my friends and others who served our country in some capacity. Certainly it was an important life experience and one that I regret that I don't have.
One of the questions that I think of when I read about wars is the effect on the soldiers and servicemen for the rest of their lives. There is no doubt that military service teaches many lessons and builds a persons character in ways that I can not understand. What I wonder is what is must have been like for veterans of wars to have some of the most exciting, memorable and profound experiences of their entire lives before the age of 30. For many veterans, this is a fact that they must learn to deal with after the war. For WWII veterans especially, there was a sense for many returning veterans that they would never do anything as important in their lives as they did during the war. They could not escape their halcyon days. Civilians and many of my generation who spent their formative years in peacetime, this is a foreign concept. I grew up with the general belief that one grows up, goes to college, maybe gets married that the best years are yet to come.
I hope that any veterans that may feel this way know that, while their service was extremely important to our country and a debt that can never properly be paid back, their best years are yet to come and their contributions to society are only going to be multiplied because of their service to our country. Looking at the accomplishments of the "greatest generation", it is easy to see that they achieved much after the wars. I'll leave you with a link to one of my friends blogs who, every Memorial Day, posts about a special place in Belgium where he spends time every year. Please check it out.
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