Thank a Veteran Today

Kurt Schlichter, who has done his share of overseas assignments and still serves monthly reserve duty, writes today in the Washington Examiner:

Arriving home from the Gulf War, I walked through the San Francisco airport in uniform waiting for somebody to mouth off and get a fistful of payback for all the "baby-killer" taunts the Vietnam vets who trained me had endured.
But I've never heard a single slur. And after 9/11, the response from my fellow citizens whenever I wear my uniform while on reserve duty has become overwhelming.

All of us privileged to wear the uniform have felt it. You get hugs from grandmotherly types. You walk into stores and people shake your hand, saying "Thank you for your service."

Little kids salute. You go to a restaurant and the waiter tells you someone has already taken care of the check. I recently stopped at a Starbucks and an older lady tried to buy my Frappucino. It happened again the next day.

But the feeling is not universal. As the wars wind down, a backlash is stirring. Sometimes, "Thanks for your service" is whispered between clenched teeth.

Sometimes, a politician's mask will slip long enough to reveal what he really thinks. Sometimes, a filthy occupier will break away from the drum circle just long enough to spit on a passing servicewoman.

And sometimes it's wrapped up in the kind of babble you see from sociology professors at second-tier colleges.

A New York Times columnist recently fretted about the "cult of the uniform," suggesting that it "bespeaks a wounded empire's need to reassert its masculinity in the wake of 9/11."

Actually, it bespeaks the need to hunt down the bastards who murdered 3,000 Americans.

Read the rest of it here. And thank a veteran when you see them.