Our Veterans

First, Happy Veterans Day, Papa Jerry.

Many sites today celebrating and thanking our Veterans for the Freedoms they have preserved, past and present.

PowerLine.

An abyss separates those who have served and sacrificed their blood for our freedom and those of us who have reaped the benefit.

Hugh Hewitt remembers the sacrifice of Joshua Michael Palmer -- a lengthy read, but you will be blessed if you have the time to read the entire memorial remarks.

When they got to the room where the snipers were, Josh insisted on being in front. Usually officers stay in the back, because their lives are considered more valuable. But Josh had always said that he would never send his men somewhere he wouldn’t go himself, and the test of a true leader was whether or not he led from the front. It was known that there was a very high chance that the person in front would be shot, as they were so close to the snipers, and the snipers were waiting for them. Josh still went in front. He probably knew that he was going to be shot, but he wouldn’t allow someone else to die when he could have prevented it. So he leaned forward and threw the grenade. As he did, he fell a little bit forward, and was shot many times all up his left side and into his neck. Immediately his men pulled him back, and killed the sniper who had shot Josh, the other two snipers were taken prisoner. They pulled Josh to a safe location, where he eventually bled to death. The photo I have, which many of you have seen in the papers, is of Josh’s men praying over him, just after he died.

Stones Cry Out. A blog written from a perspective evidenced by Rick Brady's signature Biblical Verse, Luke 19:40: "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

Please visit Fallen Heroes Memorial.
Scroll through the names and read the comments left by family members.
Reflect on the sacrafice made by veterans not only in recent years,
but throughout our nation's history .

Adopt a family and commit them to prayer.

Mac Owens also provides moving perspective to those who protect us daily.

At a time when college enrollment was a sure way to avoid military service and a tour in Vietnam, Corporal Boyer, despite excellent grades, quit, enlisted in the Marines, and volunteered to go to Vietnam as an infantryman. Because of his high aptitude-test scores, the Marine Corps sent him to communications-electronics school instead. But Corporal Boyer kept "requesting mast," insisting that he had joined the Marines to fight in Vietnam. He got his wish, and on May 29, 1969, while serving as one of my squad leaders, he gave the "last full measure of devotion" to his country and comrades. Where do we fi[n]d such men?

Larry Boyer was an only child. I corresponded with his mother for some time after his death. Her inconsolable pain and grief put me in mind of Rudyard Kipling's poem, Epitaphs of the War, verse IV, "An Only Son:" "I have slain none but my mother, She (Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me." Kipling too, lost his only son in World War I.

Indeed, Where do we find such men?