Remember the Maersk Alabama? About seven months ago the vessel was seized by Somali pirates, and her skipper, Captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage. As bad as that was, the story ended well for everyone but the pirates.

Now that the monsoon season has ended, the bad guys are at it again. But this time their reception was different. Read the article and see the adjustments that have been made to beef up security. The article: “Maersk Alabama Crew Repels Suspected Pirate Attack”

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Defense Secretary Gates told workers at the Oshkosh plant where they are being built, “Few other projects have such a direct and immediate impact on warfighters.”

Thousands more are on the way.

It was a day of peace.

November 11, 1918 was the day the guns were silenced. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marked an armistice between the Allied powers and Germany, marking the de facto end to World War I.

A year later, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”.

Twenty Years later, on November 11, 1938, Congress added that the day should be, “…dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.”

But the war to end all wars, the war Congress proclaimed to be, “…the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals”, never lived up to its billing. Many, many more men and women would lose their lives in wars to come.

In 1954, the day was renamed Veterans Day, to honor all of those who have served their country in uniform. While celebration of enduring world peace was a noble goal, it was more appropriate and proper that we honor those who have striven for peace with their service and blood.

Veterans Day

Today it is a day of honor, sadness, and dignity. There will be parades. There will be flags. And there will be memories. A ton of memories.

Those who lost their lives will be honored, but so will those who lived. They all raised their hands and swore to protect and defend the Constitution and the country whose course it directs. To them, that country has a face. It is the face of a mother who wakes up each morning with a prayer to keep her son or daughter safe. It is the face of a child who misses her parent, whose last words to her were, “I’ll be home soon.” It is the face of a friend, brother, wife. It is a small town who waits for its children to return home to a hero’s salute.

It is America.

Veterans are ordinary people who willingly confronted extraordinary events, because someone had to. They are still out there, on the frontier. To them, and to those who have served throughout the history of this nation, there is only one appropriate and proper thing we can say.

We can say thanks.

I am not one of them.

Only those who have worn the eagle, globe and anchor really understand what it means to be a Marine. The rest of us look on from afar, admiring their camaraderie and esprit de corps, but knowing we will never share their bond. Marines look at other Marines differently. Watch two of them and you will see. There is an empathy, a respect, a trust between them that those of us on the outside will never experience.

Marines join to be a part of something special. They know the risks. They understand the hardships. But inside each of them is a desire to be a part of an elite fighting force. A force that is feared around the world for its tenacity and pin-your-ears-back ferocity. When someone has to go, the Marines step forward and say, “Send me.”

In July 2008, when victory in Iraq became likely, the Commandant argued to shift the efforts of the Marines to Afghanistan. “It’s our view that if there’s a stiffer fight going on someplace else … then that’s where we need to be.” (Reuters)

Everyone knew what that meant. More violence. More danger. The badlands. Yet recruiting statistics showed an increase from 117 percent of goal that month to 118 percent in August. The people who join the Marines aren’t intimidated by a challenge. They welcome a challenge.

Born in a tavern 234 years ago to fight for independence, the Marines have continued the legacy created by their forefathers. Forged from the white-hot fires of conflict, they run toward the fight. They don’t ask who will go in first, because they know.

We all know.

It will be the Marines.

Happy Birthday, and Semper Fi.

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On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a Shoppers Drug Mart store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the store’s PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.

Terry was impressed with the store’s leadership role in adopting the Legion’s “two minutes of silence” initiative. He felt that the store’s contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.

When eleven o’clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the “two minutes of silence” to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.

Terry’s anger towards the father for trying to engage the store’s clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was later channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, “A Pittance of Time”. Terry later recorded “A Pittance of Time” and included it on his full-length music CD, “The Power of the Dream”.

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Video was brought to my attention by Steeljaw Scribe (creator of the Immelman Turn video).

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