It is interesting that Veterans Day occurs shortly before Thanksgiving.
We are very thankful for our veterans.
Some gave their lives.
Some faced great danger and came home to tell about it.
Others, like me, traveled the world and never faced down an enemy in person.
Nevertheless, every veteran put his or her life on the line, with the possibility of risking everything at any moment, in any place, in defense of our constitution and our country.
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."
We owe our liberty, our ability to live lives unmolested from foreign enemies, our survival into the 21st century and beyond, to these men and women, who for whatever reason, dedicated a season of their lives to the defense of this great nation, "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Here are two such heroes I knew personally.
My Dad...
...and my wife's Dad.
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11-11-11.
First of all, it is an odd number. Odd, because it is not evenly divisible by two; it is two ones side-by-side but eternally looking for that final mate to bring it back into evenness. 
The number 11 reminds me of veterans. We’re odd, first because we entered the service alone, leaving mates, family, friends, lives behind. And then again, many of us are bona fide characters—oddballs! 
Secondly, there is something unfinished about our lives. Our service was a phase—a very significant phase—but just a part of a life. 
There is a saying that “a veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America for an amount of up to and including my life. That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it." 
Those who paid that all-inclusive price—known or unknown—had their futures cut short. There is the sense of a life unfinished, although they gave their lives that others might live, so in that sense, their legacy is complete and incomparable.
To all those who came home—and most especially to those who did not—we say, “Thank you.” 
2010
