What Veterans Day
means to me
By James Elphick
This
year will mark the thirteenth time I have celebrated Veterans day as a veteran.
A great deal has changed since but one thing has remained constant – what
Veterans day means to me as a veteran.
Due to
the nature of my deployments I was considered a combat veteran at just 18 years
old but I was still in the Army and not officially a veteran in the civilian
world. Those first few Veterans Days were important as my friends and I
collaboratively established what the day meant to us. It became many things –
first and foremost at the time it was a day off from work which was much
appreciated – but we all seemed to reach the same conclusions.
Veterans
day was a day to celebrate that we were alive, that we had survived the war up
to that point. But it was also a time of contemplation as for many of us there
were still deployments looming. That contemplation has continued through the
years, especially for me. Every Veterans Day I reflect on the sacrifices of my
brothers and sisters in arms and I wonder about the future. I long for a day
when we are no longer creating new combat veterans but live in a world of peace
and those of us who fought this war can grow old and let the memories fade a
little.
The celebration
of being alive to enjoy Veterans Day has also always been tempered by the loss
of our comrades. Even though there is a separate holiday in Memorial Day to
recognize them it is impossible to truly separate the two. No thought toward my
own service can happen without also acknowledging those that we lost.
Finally,
and this one may have been the most difficult, Veterans Day is the time to let
the country thank us. Many of us shrug off the obligatory “thank you for your
service” that we hear whenever it becomes known that we are a veteran but for
many people it is important to say those words. Because for us we are veterans
everyday it is important to be able to step back and let the country celebrate
its veterans, even if it makes us uncomfortable.