Veterans Day

           When did Veterans Day get to be a big deal?  When did it get to be any deal?  Because it certainly was this year.

           I am a veteran (Lt. (jg) USNR), but as my service was during the Vietnam era both my service and the reactions of others to it were measured, or perhaps a better word is conflicted.  In the days when returning veterans were probably spat upon in Oakland the service was something I had done and wanted behind me.

           My sense is that the excesses of those days have engendered a reaction some 40 years later.  People of all stripes seem to be more appreciative of the service of the young men and women who go off to war, and expressions of thanks are now common.

           In our world – each November 11 for many years I have worn my summer work uniform with its gold striped epaulettes to the office where cake is served in the afternoon.  A young associate was a captain in the Marine Corps, so I salute the senior officer and he cuts the cake with his sword.  It is what we do.

           This year I wore my uniform jacket across the street to the pub for lunch, and a waitress said, “Thank you”.  Egads.  At the synagogue on the next day the veterans were asked to rise for recognition and afterwards I got a few “I didn’t know…”s.  My goodness.

           All this from other people has made me have a thought I never had before.  Maybe it really was a big deal.  When other people did whatever they did after college I went away for two years, living on a ship, sent to standby for trouble to the coasts of Haiti and Trinidad.  I was not sent to Vietnam and was never in serious danger, but I went, did what they asked me to do for $348 a month and came home.   Veterans Day has a meaning.