A Veterans Day reflection

This is a devotion that I wrote for a staff meeting today and I decided that it would be appropriate to share it on my blog.
They Didn't Always Choose to Go...
But I don't think that makes them less heroic. My family tree is full of veterans starting with Philip Von Steinmetz who fled to the new world to escape the death penalty after killing the king's deer and arrived here just in time to fight in the American Revolution. In more recent history my father-in-law fought in World War I, my father was in the Army in World War II, and my husband served in Korea, My oldest brother went to Viet Nam while my youngest brother joined the Air Force during peace time. My daughter and son-in-law are both in the Air National Guard and have been deployed to Iraq and elsewhere multiple times. My daughter is technically also a veteran, having first served in the Army.

Except for the last three, they were all drafted into the military. They didn't really want the disruption to their lives, but they answered their country's call, not having much choice in the matter.

This weekend I heard a news reporter on TV interviewing people along the route of a Veterans Day parade.  To her questions about the event one man responded "It's a lot better than the reception we got when we came home." and I knew instantly that he was a Viet Nam vet.  A classmate of mine, years after that war, told of being spit on and called "baby killer" when he got off the plane in Fort Wayne, eager to see his family and happy that he made it home alive.  He wasn't, by the way, a baby killer but he was devastated by his "welcome home".

I'm sure there were atrocities in Viet Nam, just as I am sure there have been atrocities on every side in every war ever fought, but to condemn everyone for the actions of a few seems wicked to me.  Happily, the national attitude toward veterans seems to have improved considerably over the last several years.

God, in a world where war seems to be a fact of life in every generation, help us to mourn the dead, celebrate with the survivors, and be slow to condemn, even when we think we know the facts.  Amen