Unit Happenings

Unit 11

Dorothy Thurman, Secretary/Treasurer

The Unit 11 Ladies Coffee will be held on Wednesday, June 19, at 9:00 a.m. in the Cottonwood Café. All Unit 11 ladies are invited to join us for coffee, breakfast or conversation; separate checks!

Unit 38

Unit 38 Ladies Luncheon will be held on Wednesday, June 12, at 11:30 a.m. at Abuelo’s Restaurant, 3440 W. Chandler Blvd., 480-855-0960. Separate checks and order off the menu. RSVP by June 6 to Jeri Ragan at [email protected] or 913-526-8150 or Carolyn Iyengar at [email protected] or 480-883-9988.

Ode to veterans

Gene Gulliver

They were there with Washington when he crossed the Delaware. They were there when the Star-Spangled Banner was conceived. They were at Shiloh and Gettysburg. They charged up a hill in San Juan. They laid in muddy trenches, enduring savage artillery barrages, in France. They stormed the murderous beaches of Normandy and marched down the Champs-Élysées – twice. They were at the abominable, frozen Chosen reservoir in Korea. They sweated out the rice paddies and the heart-breaking retreat in Vietnam. They were in the tanks in the first one and second one and Humvees in the ones that followed. They endured the intense anxiety of the TED’s and the nerve-wracking experience of house-to-house fighting. In between these events, they stood on the walls in faraway places to maintain this country’s integrity and security.

Who are these people? They are the men and women of the armed forces! They are the veterans. You may see them today in the gray-haired old men in the comer of McDonald’s or the long-haired hippies sitting on a park bench or the lone figure with a faraway look in his eye. They may speak, in an oscillating and cracked soft voice, about times gone past. They may speak of friends who never had a chance to grow old or of children they would like to see. Do not pass these people by as being funny or insignificant.

When the patriot’s call came, they answered it. How many people thought the call for affirmation of citizenship right was a call for deferment? Those deferment people may live to be gray-haired old men, but they won’t have the twinkle of pride in the eye that says I was there; either in the battle or on the wall. The veterans are not looking for adulation or praise, but just an acknowledgement that what they did was important.

When you see those gray-haired old men in the corner of McDonald’s or the long-haired hippies sitting on a park bench or the quiet man in the corner of the room, give them a smile. You just may have thanked a veteran.