I am retired Air Force, and there are a lot of times when people find that out they thank me for my service. This is especially true when I wear my A-2 jacket (leather flight jacket). I’m always a little embarrassed when that happens. I even had a friend at church tell me he appreciated all I’ve sacrificed in service to the nation. Had to give a slight chuckle, and he then told me that he was serious, and I shouldn’t laugh. He didn’t understand. I was laughing because I knew just how easy my career had been. True I was Air Crew. My A-2 jacket is proof of that, but that was a tour as a flight test engineer and another as a communications officer on the airborne command post. Yes, I had temporary duty and I sat alert that took me away from my family while times working thirty-six-hour days, but only for a week or two at a time. Those things were nothing like the men and women who have are deployed in theater for months at time. My service was about the softest it could be.

This Memorial Day has gotten me thinking. About the arm service friends I’ve lost either to flight accidents or to suicide. The Nation is a little less because of those hard losses. And I think about a good friend who had to be medically boarded and released from service because he messed up his legs jumping out of helicopters in combat zones carrying comm gear. I also recall those who come home, and their marriages fall apart because the long separation from their partners and hard service has changed them too much for them or their spouse to handle. I think of those young fathers returning from a long cruise or deployment having their toddler children shriek in horror when they try to hug them.

From now on when someone thanks me for my service I will tell them they are welcome. But I won’t be saying it for me. I’ll be saying it for those who paid a much higher price with a harder career and those who are no longer around to take the thanks. I’m accepting it for them.

#Service, #Thanks