Veterans Day isn't the one we mourn

This year it's the one we learn to carry on from

It’s Veterans Day. I like this holiday. I find it a chance to reminisce about my time in the military, the great friends I made in uniform, the incredible experiences, and think of those we lost.

I don’t cry on this one.

Frankly, I was fortunate to serve in the Army for 22-years. It all started only a few miles from where I write this. I grew up in a small town outside of St. Louis. My father was a Marine at the tail end of World War II and I had dreamed of flying someday. All of my siblings attended the University of Missouri, as one did in those days. I ‘rebelled’ and went to West Point.

Clearly…I suck at “rebellion” in the traditional sense.

I was the first kid to attend West Point from my high school in well over a decade. I struggled almost the minute I arrived. I chafed at the entire system of discipline, adherence to clearly archaic traditions, and rules made me wonder what I was thinking traveling halfway across the country to go to a school where people wore wool pants and screamed at you all the time.

Only one real option

Two things kept me going. A very direct letter from my father telling me that I wasn’t “welcome” at home were I to quit and think I could come back and hang out. He was not just a Marine but a native of Lynn, Massachusetts. So, being direct was sort of his native tongue.

Second, my then basic training squad leader, a rising senior Cadet, sat me down and told me I clearly didn’t belong there and for that reason they needed me stay all the more. He promised that when we went to the ranges and field the next week to finally start doing “Army” stuff I’d find it was a lot of fun.

He was right. But it was also very challenging. I had incredible experiences but I also had devastating losses, physical injuries, and professional setbacks. But, from that day I stayed for another 26-years, give or take a little break in the middle interrupted by 9/11.

I don’t tell this story to impress you with my service or boast. I tell it because it was very a dark moment for me at a young age. I was only 17 when I went to Cadet Basic Training. I hadn’t really been challenged like that in my life. I was struggling with a dramatically changed life and longed to go back to a new one.

In that dark moment I was offered the perspective I needed to carry on. It was made clear that going back wasn’t an option and that I’d find strength, and joy, to carry on by going forward. They were both right.

Just a few years later I’d find myself standing next to my own OH-58 in Korea flying missions along the DMZ and seeing the world. Just like I’d dreamed.

Our young hero at Camp Page, ROK, 1988

So, here we are.

We go forward

This has been a rough week. We lost. I hate losing but it is what it is. I’ve written a couple of times already about how we are going to have to be able to figure out what happened while simultaneously getting our stuff together and organize. Trump and his minions have a plan and they are going to be ready on Day 1.

I find myself in a place similar to that hot summer of 1983. I can’t go back. It happened. What we thought would be our plans and situation are gone. There is no sense in dwelling on it. Back is not an option.

We face an uncertain future that is going to take a lot out of us. There is real risk nationally, and for many of us, personally. There are true risks for those that have opposed Trump and his MAGA movement. They have promised retribution against many of us who have stepped up.

It is what it is. We go forward.

I am positive that I will find joy in the fight along the way even while facing difficulty. So, tonight we are going to our favorite local Mexican joint. Drink some giant margaritas and salute my brothers and sisters that served.

Tomorrow…we get to work again.

It’s all we got.

I’ll see you then.

Notes

Thank you to all of the new subscribers and especially the many paid subscribers that have joined. You have boosted us into the best seller ranks on Substack! It’s just amazing and I appreciate it. We have work to do and your support makes it possible.

-Fred