“Thanks for your service.”
That’s a phrase that gets used a lot, especially around Veterans Day.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad for it. I’m glad that people are recognizing the contributions and sacrifices of our military members and thanking them. It’s just that I know that I personally never wanted to be thanked.
I feel as if, unless you were actually drafted, nobody joined the military by accident. I never met one person in my five years who got on the wrong bus at the airport and just decided to follow the crowd. We all knew what we were doing, and it’s not like we didn’t get anything out of the deal.
So let’s get away from the idea of ‘thanks’ for just a minute. Let’s try something else.
It’s just one man’s opinion.
When I was stationed onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and acting as the Distinguished Visitor Program coordinator, we hosted guests while out to sea from all kinds of professions. These are people who were invited and paid to be flown out to the carrier and spend two or three days touring the ship and seeing actual deployment operations.
The guests were important people in fields of business, technology, politics, education and law enforcement. They were there to get educated about what the Navy actually did.
It’s a great program and I got to meet some very interesting and influential people.
That being said, there were very few people who ever left the ship unimpressed. Almost all of the guests I helped host made comments about how much safer and how proud they felt knowing that there were ships like the Lincoln out there doing what they do every day.
They always thanked us. I thanked them for coming and got ready to receive a new group.
But that’s not what I wanted to say.
I wanted to tell them that they were right to feel proud and safe, that we do have this situation in hand, and that they need to remember that when they get back to their own jobs.
I didn’t want them to thank me. I wanted them to remember me. I wanted them to take that feeling of responsibility and duty they saw in the young sailors that they were so impressed with and bring it to their own offices.
They knew, then, that they didn’t need to worry about the nation’s defense. I wanted to know that I didn’t need to worry about the nation’s education system, or whatever that person was responsible for.
If the country were one small town, this would be easier to explain.
The firefighter doesn’t need to worry about installing new brakes in his car because the mechanic is there to take care of that. Likewise the mechanic is not concerned that there would be nobody to save his garage should a fire occur.
Everybody has their own part and the deployed service members are counting on coming home to a country where they don’t have to worry about the availability of food or airline safety (or the government shutting down) or whatever. They’re counting on everyone to do their own part.
That’s how you thank a veteran. Do whatever you do, and do it the best that you can. We owe that much to each other. We should all keep in mind that sense of duty, and not just on November 11.
Like I said, it’s just one man’s opinion.
I personally dedicate this Veterans Day Bond column to all the sailors of the USS Abraham Media Department, past and present.

If you have a service memory or photo that you’d like to share, email lkelly@soundpublishing.com