A Soldier's Sacrifice

As we pause to remember veterans today, lets stop and really think about what service means, about how we have benefited and about what the word sacrifice means.

Lets start by speaking a little truth to power shall we? The truth is, not everyone who serves or has served in the military is a hero. Lets not forget that Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marine at one point.

The reality is that most people who serve in the military are neither great nor bad. They neither excel or are a screw up. In fact, most of the time you basically want to be nothing more than middle of the road. You don't want to stand out, you want to be part of the pack.

Keeps you from having to do KP or “post beautification”.

Most people who serve as basically unremarkable. Except that their service is by definition, pretty remarkable.

Not everyone joins the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines because they want to defend truth, justice, and the American way. We all had our reasons for joining. Some wanted to get away from home, some had parents who pressured them in to doing it because they were lacking direction and getting in to too much trouble, others want to travel and some for the GI Bill.

Me, well I joined for a combination of reasons. One of the big ones was that I had a young wife to support and she later became pregnant. I wanted a way to support my family and get some college money on the back end of my hitch. I was also raised in an almost fanatically patriotic family who instilled in me a strong sense of duty. I wanted to prove to my grandfather and my father that I was a man.

I know, its silly. Although when you're a young man filled with more testosterone than brains it seems like a perfectly rational reason.

But mostly it was the college money. I chose the Army because my wife liked the dress blues.

I, like many other people, didn't really fully appreciate exactly what it was that I was doing when I signed on the proverbial dotted line. I was signing up to make a sacrifice.

The drill sergeants in 2^nd Platoon, Delta Company, 2/46^thInfantry Battalion made it clear on day one why we were really there.

To kill or be killed.

It was a simple reality that was meant to shock us but that sentiment is the most basic truth any soldier, sailor, airman, or marine faces. And it isn't until that moment that the reality of what you signed up for actually hits you.

Sure, its in the back of your mind while you're watching that “Be All That You Can Be” commercial on TV, but you don't really understand it until some stranger with a funny southern or Puerto Rican accent is yelling at you while teaching you how to kill someone with your bare hands.

Its then and only then do you realize, I might not make it back home.

The next thing you think of is, what the hell did I do??

Hollywood, and now all too often the media, show us a lot about those that make the ultimate sacrifice. Those that die in service to their county have their sacrifice well-documented. As it should be.

And sadly there are people that are in leadership positions in this day and age, who have probably had peers that have gone to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, that not only don't appreciate the sacrifice, but actually think of veterans in the same context as welfare recipients. These people have the audacity to think of service people as losers with no other employment opportunities.

Sad and embarrassing, but true nonetheless.

What many don't understand is that every service member makes a sacrifice. Even if they are really in it for the college money, or because they don't have a lot of other employment options, they have to make sacrifices that civilians don't have to make. And since we have an all-volunteer Army, they willingly make the sacrifice.

Personally, I think of the men and women I served with, and some vatos (Omar, Jeromy, Marty, Roman, etc) from the neighborhood that served as well.

But mostly I think of real bad-asses on Veteran's Day like my grandfather and his brothers that all served in World War II. My grandfather wasn't just a Marine, he was an Iwo Jima Marine. And after World War II what did he do? 

He then served in Korea leaving behind a young family (my pop is the little boy pictured). I think of my tio Juan Acosta who earned the Bronze Star in Korea and was such a humble guy that I never knew he earned the medal until his funeral. I think of my Uncles Bernie, Johnny, Marvin, and Russell and my Aunt Rita (who was the highest-ranking Abeytia to ever serve) who all served in Vietnam. Uncle Bernie wears a Marine Corp shirt or hat nearly every day. He makes sure every veteran in the family passes gets the military honors they are due.

My primo Brian, and now even his daughter, are now serving. Thats the sacrifice I think of on Veteran's Day.

Services members often laugh at your whining about an 8-10 hour work day. When you complain about having to be “on your feet all day”, think about that MP who is a single mom thinking about her kids while she's directing traffic for convoys in Korea on a night-time training op.

When you're pissed because you can't get wifi to work at the office so that you can check your Facebook notifications, think about the soldiers that would've done anything to have a care package sent to them with a calling card so that they could hear their mom's voice on the phone for Mother's Day.

When you're complaining about having to sit next to your brother-in-law you can't stand at Thanksgiving in a few weeks, think about the Marine who can no longer stand at all because he was on patrol after leaving his FOB in Afghanistan and hit an IED that blew off his legs.

The summer when you turned 21 and went to Vegas? Think about the sailor who turned 21 directing the take-off of a fighter jet on a carrier somewhere in the Indian Ocean. That time you went snowboarding with your buddies in Ruidoso? Think about the veteran that had to fight off frost bite walking his post at the DMZ with a frozen hunk of 8 pounds of M-16 looking across at a North Korean counterpart that would like nothing better than to tag an American GI.

Or remember when you went dirt-biking out in Red Sands? Think about the soldiers that went to Somalia and ended up with sand in parts of their body they didn't know existed.

And while you're out buying that perfect gift for your bratty kid who doesn't listen and will either break or be bored with the gift two weeks after Christmas, think about all the moms and dads that wore a uniform who missed a Christmas or two with their bratty kids that don't listen.

Everyone who ever put on the uniform, even airman who annoyingly call each other by their first names, made a sacrifice that civilians can never fully understand. Veterans were willing to put themselves in harms way to serve their country while praying every day that they wouldn't have to.

Think about that while you're bitching about waiting in line for your douchey over-priced venti cup of Who-Gives-A-Crap at Starbucks.

God bless our veterans.

And God bless America.