Veteran’s Day was yesterday. Since it also was my birthday, I was so busy I did not have time to write. Using my father’s way of determining age, I am 7 this year. To determine age, you take your age and add the numbers, like 29 is 2+p=11. Since 11 is a double digit number you add them again to get a single digit number, 1+1=2. Therefore, you would be 2 for the year. It is a fun activity to do with the children as they can be the oldest from time to time. My kids enjoyed it while they were growing up and my grandkids are learning how much fun this activity can be. I will let you figure out how old I am. My grandkids ask if I had to fight dinosaurs when I was young. That gives you a hint on my age.

Veteran’s Day is an important day in our family. Members of my family have served in the military almost every generation since 1776. That means that they have participated in the various wars for independence and survival. None of them have been historically important. The closest was the one who served as an officer on the staff of General George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Most of the others were officers in the various wars. My two grandfathers were not officers during World War I. They happened to meet and become friends while serving in the same unit. After the war, they bought homes that were close to each other. They socialized together periodically. My father and mother became friends and then married each other after World War II. My two grandfathers served in law enforcement in San Francisco after World War I.

Because of this long standing military tradition, we honor the military on a regular basis. I did not serve in the military because of bad knees. My knee problems were not bad enough to keep me out of law enforcement, but bad enough to keep me out of the military. That was during Vietnam when they didn’t do much more than take your temperature to determine if you were physically eligible to be a soldier. My brother was just young enough to miss his chance to go to Vietnam. They withdrew all the troops by the time he was eligible to be drafted.  

The current occupant of the White House does not honor the troops. In fact, I believe that he would rather that there were not any military units in the United States at all. He acts as if the military is an annoyance that he would gladly give to someone else, if he could. This dithering over whether to back the general he picked to lead the troops in Afghanistan is instructive on whether he backs the troops or not. If he backed the troops, the decision would have been made within one day of receiving the request. The other fact that shows that our current occupant does not back the troops is the fact that he does not meet with the leaders of our troops in the field. When General McChrystal made the request for additional troops, he had only met with the President one time in two months. That is not enough for a President to keep up on where things are in the field. There is a small chance that I could be wrong and our current occupant could back the troops to the hilt. The problem is that there is little evidence to back that position up. There is a lot of information to back up the position that he does not back up the troops.

Another bit of information that shows the current occupant’s position on the military is how fast he came to Ft. Hood after the shooting. George W. Bush came within a couple of days and met individually with many of the families and other members of the military at Ft. Hood. Our current occupant of the White House did not come until there was a memorial for those killed in the terrorist attack. Then, when he did come he had to have the press cover his every move. It is as if the entire incident was about the current occupant of the White House instead of the people that were killed. President Bush has his priorities straight. Barack Obama is still having issues on where his priorities are located.

The military that serves today and all those that have ever served us in the military deserve our honor and respect. As citizens of the best country ever created, we should honor those that have made us free and kept us safe. I try to go out of my way to make those that have served in the military feel like they are honored for their service. When I get a soldier in class, I let him/her know that their service for this country is respected by me. I go out of my way to accommodate them and the demands their duty to the country and the military require them to make. I work with the soldier to make sure that they receive the credit they deserve for their work in the class.

An example of how to work with the soldier to get them the credit they deserve is when a soldier is called to go to Iraq or Afghanistan before the end of class. I work with them to get as much done as possible. Then, if they are almost finished with the class, I usually give them credit for finishing the class. Early in the semester, that is not possible, but at the end of the semester it is an option. That way they don’t have a couple of things to finish the class hanging over their head while they are gone. There is one student in another class that has to go to Iraq. He already had another class that he had to finish, so I was not going to add to that.

Our military is the best in the world. If we honor those that serve in the military, we help to keep our military on the top. When our military slipped to second place in the 1970’s, it was because of Vietnam and people disrespecting those in the military. We need to give our military the support they need. The emotional support is probably as important as the physical support they get.