Happy Memorial Day

I'm going to make this post short and sweet, since I've seen so many other posts in a similar vein, but here's a big warm salute to all veterans, past and present, who have sacrificed their time, their energy, their abilities, and unfortunately, their lives, for the safety of all Americans. I give thanks not only to you, but to your families as well. My father was in the Air Force (got out just in time to avoid going to Vietnam) and several of my uncles were in other branches of the service. My former partner is a veteran, and if he was any other kind of linguist besides Russian, he might have been called back into service at any point.

I remember when Desert Storm began, and I was working retail at Levitz Furniture. The day of the first airstrike, I was manning the sales counter, and an older couple came up to pay for their purchase. The man looked at me closely and said, "Son, you'd better get ready. You may be called up to go over there." I'm sure my eyes got huge at that, since I hadn't really thought that much about it, but if a draft was called up, I would have had to go. I hope that I could have made that same sacrifice with the same grace and courage as so many others have.