What We Need to Know about Veterans Day

By | November 11, 2024

[November 11, 2024]  Happy Veterans Day to all. It seems the older I get, the faster Veterans Day rolls around.

Veterans Day comes at a great time of the year. Just in November and December, we have three great holidays to celebrate. The first major holiday that we celebrate during this time is Veterans Day, then Thanksgiving and, of course, Christmas.

I feel very confident that because of this holiday, Veterans Day, we get to celebrate the next two holidays in a custom like no one else in the world can visualize.

Veterans make our country free, Veterans give all people living in America the free choice to just about do whatever we want to do. Veterans are the symbol of our GREAT FLAG and our GREAT CONSTITUTION.

Many people during the busy holiday seasons are using many credit cards and signing many checks to pay for the millions of gifts that show up under our tree on Christmas. Also, the money spent in supermarkets preparing our great Thanksgiving dinner. All this time and money sometimes make us lose the true meaning of these holidays. Especially Veterans Day.

When it comes to money spent on Veterans Day, we cannot add up all the checks signed by our Veterans that signed that most important check. This was the check in the amount of their lives, written to protect us and let us live in the great free country called America.

Not one of the checks written by Veterans in Arlington, Normandy, or our local Veterans Cemeteries ever bounced.

When we get up from the Thanksgiving table, after the great family feast, we are overstuffed with three kinds of potatoes, five different vegetables, turkey stuffing, cornbread, cranberry sauce and too many pies and deserts to count. We can barely walk away from the table after being so overfilled.

Do we stop and think of the Veteran that is homeless? The Veteran that helps make all of our holidays happy and thankful? He or she when they get up from their Thanksgiving meal are they over filled? Do they have as much as most people have on that day? A scoop of mashed potatoes, a spoon of vegetables, a piece of turkey? Maybe a piece of pumpkin pie if someone donated dessert to the shelter?

We get up from our table, have a glass of wine and go watch a football game or two. But in a few hours, we are right back sitting around the dining room table, filling any spot left in our stomachs that has room for more turkey and stuffing.

Too many of our Veterans on their day leave the shelter that gave them a Thanksgiving meal and head back to the woods or under their favorite bridge for the night. Too many of our Veterans live alone and have no families, at least ones that they are separated from. I wonder if they ever think their service was worth it. They are forgotten and alone. No TV with football, no late-night turkey sandwiches, no comfort of a roof over their heads. I believe they are proud of their service. When are we going to be proud of them?

So, this Veterans Day, thank a Veteran. Let them know you appreciate their service. Ask them how they feel. Please don’t look at them as if they are not as good as the rest of us. We owe them so much.

We only celebrate Veterans Day one day a year. But we eat Turkey and pumpkin pie all year long. A lot of Veterans have families on Veterans Day to celebrate with. But over thousands have no one on Veterans Day and most other days. I can’t and won’t tell you how to feel on Veterans Day. But please do your best.

If you get stuck on what to say to a Veteran on their day, just look up at the sun, feel the autumn breeze hit your face, walk through the snowflakes on the ground, or hear the great sound of children playing nearby. All this happens because many teenagers raised their arms to the sky and promised the world that we would give the world freedom.

So, on Veterans Day, smile at a Veteran. Ask them their name. Thank them for their service, or maybe remember them for what they did, because many are at space stations over our earth, or working in a sub at the bottom of all our oceans or standing watch at over one hundred different foreign countries. Way too many we will not see because their important job takes them all over the world.

But maybe for the one’s we do see if you get a chance say hello and maybe treat them to a piece of pumpkin pie.

Happy Veterans Day

Joe

————

Please read my books:

  1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
  2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).

20 thoughts on “What We Need to Know about Veterans Day

  1. SWEENEY

    SUPERB WORDS
    VIETNAM WAR VETERAN
    LOYALTY, DUTY, INTEGRITY, COURAGE, HUMILITY
    … AND PROFESSIONALISM.

    Reply
  2. Dead Pool Guy

    Here is my late HAPPY VETERANS DAY blog post. Wishing all is well with our vets today.

    Reply
  3. Wild Bill

    Everyone! Do you know what I like about military veterans? See this fabulously popular article by Gen. Satterfield titled, “ This Veteran Doesn’t Kneel”
    https://www.theleadermaker.com/this-veteran-doesnt-kneel/
    “The kneeling phenomenon demanded by radical leftists in the wake of George Floyd’s death runs counter to how Americans are taught. Growing up in the Deep South, we called this being “yella” – a derisive term for cowardice. We know from the many centuries of human behavior that kneeling doesn’t satisfy the tyrant or the bully. Kneeling is submission to the whims of other humans. You become less of a person to others, a sacrifice of your humanness. It is never virtuous to be victimized by a bully, even if that bully is oneself.” — Gen. Doug Satterfield

    Reply
  4. American Girl

    🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 We honor and revere and cherish our Veterans because we know they’re willing to do what many aren’t — at a minimum, sacrificing time with families, and when duty calls, traveling to far-off lands in defense of freedom and the American ideal. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

    Reply
    1. Doc Jeff

      Right on, American Girl. Too many individuals in both America and in the West have zero idea what Veterans Day is about or how it came about or the emotions that are engraved into the hearts of our heroes, the American vet. Take the time today to find and greet a vet. Go and see a parade or vet day event locally. Be part of your community like our vets would like to also be.
      —————
      🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
      VETERANS DAY
      🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

      Reply
  5. Navy Vet

    Mr. Griffies, a pleasure to read your thoughts today, this very special day, and only one day that we recognize our vets, but we “celebrate “ an entire month for LGBTQI+ weirdos.

    Reply
  6. Army Captain

    All of us real Americans will honor Veterans’ Day that used to be called Armistice Day, a day to remember the last day of WW1, the war to end all wars. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” It is still a tradition to wear a silk red poppy on your suit or shirt to show that you do honor those who served. I don’t see this much anymore but let’s make that a traditional way again. For the millions of men like Joe Griffies, we offer our prayers of thanks. Patriots all across America celebrate men like Joe, a Vietnam War vet. Thanks to Gen. Satterfield and his annual remembrance of Veterans’ Day.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Callahan

      Well said, Army Captain. And a special shout-out to all those veterans who have been let down by our Veterans Administration that is more concerned about giving huge bonuses to their executives and removing Lincoln’s famous quote off VA buildings and giving sex-change operations. My grandfather was a WW2 vet, my dad and uncle Vietnam war vets, and my son an Iraqi War vet. Service runs in our family. But the VA continues to be plagued by incompetents at its most senior levels. Now is the time to bring back the VA to support our vets, not our politicians’ plaything.

      Reply
      1. Pastor Jim 🙏

        Hard-hitting and spot-on commentary, Melissa. Thanks to you and I salute those in your family who served. ✝︎ God bless them all.

        Reply
        1. Jason D.

          Hi Jelly. Great to see you back here to properly compliment Mr. Griffies on another Veterans Day article. So, with that in mind. VETERANS’ DAY @ welcome home.

          Reply
  7. Alderson Jr.

    Well written and thoughtful.
    —-
    “ Too many of our Veterans on their day leave the shelter that gave them a Thanksgiving meal and head back to the woods or under their favorite bridge for the night. Too many of our Veterans live alone and have no families, at least ones that they are separated from. I wonder if they ever think their service was worth it. They are forgotten and alone. No TV with football, no late-night turkey sandwiches, no comfort of a roof over their heads. I believe they are proud of their service. When are we going to be proud of them?” — Joe Griffies

    Reply
  8. Yusaf from Texas

    Mr, Griffies …… WELCOME HOME. It is, once again, a pleasure and an honor to read your thoughts about Veterans Day. You write in a down-to-earth style like most of us veterans think. Well done.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.