Banner guest commentary: To our veterans ... thanks for a job well done

Since l918, 85 years ago, when Veterans Day (originally Armistice Day) first began in America, our young men and young women were not usually pitched in battle nor fighting for freedom and liberty for us and for others. This year is different as we celebrate Veterans Day. We have our best and bravest risking their very lives for a noble and just cause.

Since our very conception as a nation, as God had His hand on our cradle at birth, the American people have fought for the principles of independence, justice, representative government, democracy and law. The soldiers at Bunker Hill and Yorktown fought for independence. The dough boys went "over there" to help keep representative government in Europe alive. The G.I.s during World War II fought the Axis powers so that men could be free, so that humans would not be treated as chattel and so darkness would not sweep over Europe and Asia. During the Cold War, our veterans stood bravely against the dark principles of Marxism, Stalinism and Maoism.

Our veterans of Korea and Vietnam were put to the ultimate test in the mountains, jungles and rice paddies of Southeast Asia.

And our veterans of the first Persian Gulf War went across the globe so that a dictator could not abuse a peaceful neighbor nation or an entire region, and thus be in charge of the world's oil supply.

We rightfully look back during times of peace to praise the heroic acts of our wonderful veterans, men and women, who helped keep us and others free.

But this Veterans Day is different; it is even more real and demonstrative. Today, we have our military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting a real war with real bombs, with real blood and real deaths. This year, this Veterans Day, we have moms, dads, brothers and sisters who drop to their knees every night praying for the safe and quick return of family members. This Veterans Day, there are infant sons and daughters who have not seen dad yet.

This Veterans Day we have loved ones at home nervously watching the news from overseas, apprehensive about answering a ringing phone late at night. This Veterans Day we have our courageous, professional and duty-bound men and women longing to be at home with family, but they know they have a just cause and a righteous mission fighting terrorism and despotism so that we and the rest of the world can breathe air that is free from tyranny and repression. Our soldiers this Veterans Day are in caves, deserts, and in cities of many foreign lands, fighting for us as well as for others they never met nor will ever know. Our veterans know that freedom is not free, appeasement does not work with bullies, and God is on the side of justice. They understand that we must live up to our responsibilities as a nation of hope.

As Edmund Burke said many centuries ago, our veterans know "that the only thing needed for evil to succeed is for good men and women to do nothing."

Today, we reach back in our history to love, hug and shake the hands of our veterans who were at the Battle of the Bulge, Midway, Meuse-Argonne, Porkchop Hill, Pusan, Hamburger Hill, Saigon and Baghdad. We praise the vets who freed the concentration camp survivors, who held the line at the 38th parallel and who fought bravely during Nam. We marvel at the vets who slipped behind enemy lines for liberty's sake in Moscow, Peking and Havana.

But this Veterans Day of 2003, we have our military personnel, both active and reserve, with "boots in the sand" as we speak. We have our loved ones, as we watch on TV in real time, keeping hope alive. Today, let us not only reach back in our history, but let us also reach up to ask that our men and women return home safe and sound. As these veterans fight a just war for a noble cause, we pray God's safety will deliver them to the arms of a loving family and a grateful nation. To all of our veterans, this Veterans Day of 2003, we humbly and fervently say "thank you and job well done!" -- ANDREW W. COY, Lee County Commissioner Veterans' Liaison