Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Veteran's Day

I think a lot of people simply enjoy this day as a day out of work without a second thought to those who have fought and are still fighting for our country! I have a dad and mom who were both in the military (albeit for very short periods of time), extended family that served and an uncle who is still serving, as well as a little cousin who just enlisted in the marines! I also have numerous friends with husbands who are active military. Being a young woman living near Fort Lewis... I met my fair share of great young men who were serving our country.

One inparticular was this great guy named Donald McCune. In fact, Donnie and I went out a few times and 1 week before he was deployed to Iraq he decided that he should seal the deal and ask me to be his "girl friend" before he left. What girl would be crazy enough to turn that down? Communicating through email, IM and a phone call was hard. It down right sucked as a matter of fact.

On August 6th, 3 months after his deployment, I opened up an email from one Donald R McCune. The email went on to explain that Donnie had died the day before in Germany. Apparently his vehicle had hit an IED (improvised explosive device). Donnie was airlifted to a hospital in Germany. While his mother was in flight to see him Donnie passed away at the age of 20. I remember screaming while reading the email, it seemed to be the only things my body would allow me to do. I had kept hearing in the news about our soliders who had died but it never seemed very real until this moment.

No matter how "tough" you are, hearing a 21 gun salute and seeing those boots with a gun and helmet propped up will bring you to tears. I can't imagaine how many families have gone through this experience and I would never wish it on everyone.

That is my story about why Veteran's Day is important to me. I would like to thank all of our current and past military. They do a wonderful job at keeping our country safe. I also want to be sure to thank the family members of all military.... without you, they couldn't do what they do!

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