Our Veterans Continue to Defend Our Rich Heritage

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Members of my family have been on American’s soil since the 1500s, including some relatives who are part of the history of the Roanoke Colony. We have been here a long time.

And almost all of the men my genealogy wore a uniform and fought in the wars on domestic and foreign soil.

They join the rich history of America not best measured by our wars, but by those who fought them. Great conflicts during the first 100 years or so left our soil drenched with the blood or our own soldiers, while many lost their lives in wars at sea.

Add to this the soldiers to foreign lands to fight: from the four million soldiers the U.S. sent to Europe in World War I, to the more than 16 million men and women sent to World War II to answer the call of our allies in Europe to defeat Hitler.

Our servicemen and women made attempts to stem the fear of a rising tide of Communism in Asia in the early 1950s, sending nearly seven million to Korea and later another almost 3 million to Vietnam.

Today we still have boots on the ground as advisors and in other roles in foreign lands, attempting to salvage some democracy in the region while helping the citizens of those lands fight extremism and terrorism, and in other places across the globe.

Today is a time to stop and thank the men and women who answered the call of their county. Whether Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard, many devoted or continue to devote a large part of their lives in service to their country.

I know directly that members of my own family have been fighting in America since at least the time of the revolution, Scottish immigrants here in the Upcountry who opposed the loyalists in the American Revolution and punished the British who threatened their way of life.

My grandmother’s grandfather, a Confederate soldier, rode home on a horse to his family homestead after more than four years at war and had been gone so long, and presumed dead, that no one even recognized him.

I had great-uncles who fought in the Great War.

My dad’s oldest brother fought in the European theater, and was captured by the Germans three times (but always escaped). My father just missed Korea during his more than decade of service in the Army and might have been sent as an advisor to Vietnam if hearing problems from his infantry duty had not kept him home.

I just missed Vietnam myself, although many of my close friends did not.

And in the almost interrupted cycle of wars in the Mideast, many of my friends’ sons have been sent into harm’s way over the past 25 years. Some did not make it home.

Today I want to offer gratitude to all who served in those conflicts, as well as to those who served stateside who made the overseas campaigns possible.

Those of us who never wore a uniform, salute you today for fighting to defend our freedoms.

So Happy Veterans Day to the men and women who answered the call of their country. I hope you make time to reflect on why what you did was so important.