Thank you for your service.
"Thank you for your service," these five simple words can have a powerful impact on 17.8 military service men and women. This number includes the active duty personnel and veterans who called the United States of America home in 2021. Those who serve in the U.S. military are often unnoticed and unappreciated by the general population, and this pattern needs to change. According to Military.com, trust and confidence are declining in the U.S. military, and we do not want to pass this general distrust on to our service men and women. Already struggling with increases in suicide, homelessness, and mental health issues, many of our service men and women deal with these problems alone. You may recognize your need for military personnel, but do you see that they need you? We hope to inspire gratitude beyond simple words, but "Thank you" is an excellent way to start.
We can all become champions for our service men and women by recognizing their service, welcoming them home, and supporting them once they remove their uniforms. We will encourage you by highlighting specific service men and women and exploring what "Thank you" means to them. We will educate you on how military service contributes to our daily lives by featuring active service personnel and where they serve. We will inspire you with stories of Veterans in hopes that they will be remembered and celebrated. We can help you recognize our service men and women and encourage you to engage them in conversation. Once you see the impact of a simple "Thank You," sharing your gratitude to our service men and women will become addictive. We recognize the individuals, community groups, and businesses that work to support our service men and women for their efforts. Thank you will never be enough, but it is where we choose to start this journey to moving beyond "Thank you."
Beyond Thank You.
My Dad is my hero. Inspired by his service, I am grateful to the United States service men and women. My Dad is a United States Marine. He is 74 and not an active Marine, but he says, "Once a Marine, always a Marine." He is a Vietnam vet; he will not talk about the war but does speak about the terrible treatment he received upon returning home. Unlike veterans of previous wars, many Vietnam vets were spit on, verbally abused, and generally mistreated when they returned home from the Vietnam war. My Dad talks of being called "Baby Killer" when he walked in public in his uniform, and some people looked down on him when he used his GI bill to return to college. Unfortunately, his experience is not unique; Ken Moffett, a Vietnam vet himself, said, "Perhaps the cruelest aspect of the war was the treatment of the returning soldiers. Unlike the hero status given to the returning soldiers from World War II, the soldiers that served in Vietnam were portrayed as baby killers, psychos, drug addicts, and war-mongers." There were a few people whom Dad remembered appreciated his service. The first was a small group of Hell's Angles who thanked him for his service as he exited the military base upon returning from Vietnam. It was not until almost thirty years later that a young girl thanked him at an Independence Day celebration at a church.
My Dad is a man of action and used his experience to teach us how to show appreciation to service men and women. We quickly learned to identify those in uniform and look for anything indicating service. Dad would engage service men and women in conversation and thank them for their benefit or secretly pay for their meals if he saw them in a restaurant. His actions taught me an appreciation for military service men and women and how to show it to them.
During my time at Saint Tammany Parish Hospital, I participated in many Code Red, White, and Blue events. When a service member dies, hospital staff will announce a Code of Red, White, and Blue. Staff members line the hallway near the chapel, and the hospital chaplain rolls the casket, covered with an American flag, down the hall with the family. At one point, the chaplain stops and tells the name and rank of the deceased service member along with information regarding duty stations and service history. He will formally recognize the family and offers condolences. The chaplain then allows the staff to show appreciation by lining the hall for a final exit. Staff may show respect by saluting, hands to heart, or what they feel most led to do. I felt so blessed to be a part of Code Red, White, and Blue. My eyes were full of tears, and my heart was broken, but I knew that was where I belonged.
Through teaching my son and daughter, I have found a calling to encourage others to seek out military service men and women and thank them for their service. I enjoy watching them interact and love seeing their faces light up as my son says, "Thank you." Hearing service men and women say they do not get much appreciation, especially from someone as young as my son, breaks my heart. We can all become champions for our service men and women by recognizing their service, welcoming them home, and supporting them once they remove their uniforms. Thank you will never be enough, but it is where we choose to start this journey to moving beyond "Thank you."
