"That is so nice of you to do that," said a 30 ish woman, her eyes wide open in almost disbelief as she looked at the vigil from her SUV and spoke to John Fortier and me. "Thank you for remembering the soldiers, especially this time of year."
Her heartfelt expression was indicative of the support we received from drivers with their horn honks, waves and shout outs and from the kind words of pedestrians. One wave and shout out came from a 43 year old lovely woman as she drove by, stopping in the right lane to express herself. She and her husband are friends of Anne and mine. And the vigil was joined as well for about 15 minutes by a 67 year old woman who occasionally joins it on her way to church.
Someone recently asked why there are so many more soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, a question I put to John. "Because of all the deployments they now serve," he replied. "They do 3 or 4 deployments and some of them do 5 or 6 deployments. In Korea, as an aerial gunner, I was to do 35 missions. I did 14 missions before the war ended. In World War ll, they were to do 50 missions but after awhile, (the military) backed off that number." John explained that continuous and long time exposure to combat takes a heavy toll on the human mind.
"Thank you for doing that," called out a 35 ish man driving an SUV. "My brother in the back seat served 6 years in the Air Force. I've been in the Army for 12 years and he (the passenger next to him), has been in the Army for 10 years. I did 2 tours in Iraq and in March, I'm going to Afghanistan." All 3 gentlemen expressed their gratitude for the vigil and I expressed our appreciation for their service as I fist bumped the driver, shook hands with the passenger and waved at the brother in the back seat.
"What are they going to do with all the boys and girls (soldiers) coming home," asked the 67 year old woman who had joined the vigil, with deep concern ringing in her voice. "Many will be on the street," John replied. "Others will wind up in jail and hopefully some will find jobs. But there are a lot of people looking for jobs. I talked to a guy, an electrician who has been looking for a job for 3 years."
It is tough for the returning soldiers because there are already so many other people unemployed or underemployed and these soldiers have been out of sight and not counted in the labor pool and in many cases need to be retrained for the jobs that do exist. But I would rather have them home safely with their families than fighting in a distant land, even if jobs are in short supply.
This 67 year old woman also shared a lovely holiday story with us. Her 41 year old daughter and her daughter's boyfriend from their Oregon home have "adopted" a neighboring Oregon family of a husband, wife and 4 children. The husband is out of work and the wife doesn't bring in enough income to support the family. So her daughter and her boyfriend are helping to buy groceries and other necessities and even bought this family a Christmas tree and joined them in decorating it. It is a story of one good neighbor helping another and a reminder of the goodness that lives within each of us despite the wars.
Dick
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