Opinion: Freedom rings thanks to U.S. veterans

And I’m wondering if it is just coincidence that a special day honoring veterans precedes Thanksgiving Day by only a few days. Each of us can be thankful for all veterans who have defended the nation in times of peril.

Veterans Day was once called Armistice Day, commemorating Nov. 11, 1918, the end of the Great War, later renamed World War I. Since 1954, the national holiday has been called Veterans Day.

Just about every generation since the American Revolution has faced conflicts somewhere requiring military action. The 20th century had so many wars that some veterans fought in more than one. The Spanish-American, World War I and II, Korea, and Vietnam were bunched so close together that some served multiple times.

In the past few months, I have attended two concerts where veterans were asked to stand to be honored when the song of their branch of service was played. A surge of pride came over me as I stood for “Anchors Aweigh.” I may have even shed a tear. I had never before been aware of the depths of my feelings about serving.

The Korean War was my generation’s time to serve. I saw no combat. Actually, a truce was reached with North Korea a few months after I finished boot camp. Since no peace treaty was ever signed, technically, we are still at war with half of Korea.

Joining the Navy fulfilled my boyhood dream of being a sailor. As a child growing up during World War II, my heroes were the men fighting in Europe and the Pacific. Sailors were special heroes.

My heroes, the veterans of World War II, are getting on in years. The young men and women who returned triumphantly from World War II were hailed rightly so as conquering heroes. If lesser men had fought that long and bloody war, the Axis powers likely would have won. It may be difficult for younger folks to realize the power of the victorious forces of Germany and Japan in the early days of the war. We enjoy the American way of life because of veterans of all wars; however, the World War II generation deserves our everlasting thanks.

I stand as living proof that Korean veterans are getting a bit long in the tooth. It has been called the forgotten war. No brass bands and parades welcomed the returning troops. The war was unpopular. Only in recent years have Korean War vets been accorded the public honors withheld at the end of the war.

While the public more or less ignored the veterans of the Korean War, the treatment of the returning Vietnam War troops was shameful. As the war raged on, the demonstrations against it became more and more fierce.

So clamorous was the antiwar sentiment by many that hatred for the war was somehow transferred to returning troops. All the Vietnam vets wanted was to get on with their lives.

Once again, the nation is involved in an unpopular war.

Unlike Vietnam, the men and women fighting in Iraq are being praised even by the war’s most adamant critics.

I am rarely a proponent of political correctness, but if praising all men and women who have served their country in the armed forces has become politically correct, I’ll join the PC crowd just this once.

The Thanksgiving holiday is a perfect time to give thanks to veterans who have been instrumental in helping us achieve that which deserves thanks: Freedom!

Abraham Lincoln was talking about Union soldiers buried at the Gettysburg cemetery when he urged his audience to ensure “that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom …”

That we are still free is dynamic testimony that those who have died serving the nation did not die in vain.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.