Log in

Akers: What Veterans Day means to me

Posted

Let me start out by saying that even in the veterans community there seems to be some confusion as to what makes someone a veteran.

Some say you have to have completed a contract of service. Most signed up for four, six or eight years. Some say a veteran had to have seen combat in order to be considered a veteran.

Here are my thoughts. If you raised your hand and took an oath of service, completed basic training and went on to your training school, carried that ID card, you served your country, no matter the time spent.

Now to the question of what this day means to me. I can assure you it isn’t about free meals and strangers thanking me for my service, although I do appreciate that very much.

Veterans Day always takes me back to memories of days gone by. I often find myself remembering fallen brothers and sisters, the ones I actually knew and served with.

I remember our times together whether it was a stateside assignment or overseas.

The one thing most of the veterans remember isn’t the gallantry of events or the battles they may have fought. For me it is the quiet conversations, showing each other’s family pictures, talking about mom’s signature dish.

Veterans share a bond that most people who haven’t served will never fully understand. We are from all walks of life, placed on the same team, and it is a team belief.

So, for me Veterans Day isn’t about the war I have seen or all the awards I have achieved or my units I was stationed with.

It is about that guy from Ohio who had the funny way about him, or the funny guy in the unit that kept us all laughing when things were unbearable.

I served for 32 years, traveled all over this world. I saw things I never dreamed possible, made friends that are still friends to this day, even when we may only speak once in a while. The friendships forged through all these strangers are the strongest in the world.

So, for me Veterans Day is find memory of all the people that came into my life wearing that uniform, a quiet memory I like to visit.

That is what Veterans Day is for me, I could not have chosen a better way to spend my life, but in service to my nation, but in return I received so much more in the way of a bond of brothers and sisters that will always be with me.

Gregory Akers is a veteran and Surprise resident.