Daily Kos members and readers regularly and faithfully honor the service and sacrifice of our Service Members and Veterans, all year around, year after year:
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor, respect and remind. Its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. Diaries about the fallen usually appear two days after their names are officially released, which allows time for the IGTNT team to find and tell their stories.
Find the series here: IGTNT
With Election Day 2012 now behind us, as we prepare to observe yet another Veterans Day, please note how our Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama responded when asked to discuss his, "most unforgettable character."
RD: We’ve been around for 90 years, and almost from that first year, we regularly ran a feature called My Most Unforgettable Character. Outside your family, who is your most unforgettable character?
Obama: I visit Walter Reed every three months, and it’s always powerful seeing our young men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and some of them going through some devastating injuries. But the last time I was in Afghanistan, ten guys had just been hit with an IED. So I went to the hospital to visit them, and there was one guy who was completely knocked out. Face was all puffy, and he had a tube up his nose, and his eyes were shut. I just very softly said, “We’re so proud of you and appreciate everything you’ve done, and we’re thinking of you.” I was about to leave, and just as I’m about to leave, suddenly there’s rustling under the blanket, and his hand comes up just to shake my hand. The kid was probably 20, 21. And he never opened his eyes.
About two or three months later, I saw him at Walter Reed, and he was walking. He was with his dad from Maryland. I always remember him, not because he’s unusual but because he embodies what these guys and gals are doing for us every single day. I think we hung up a picture of that moment along the walls here somewhere, and everybody always stops and sees it because it really does capture what these folks are doing: protecting our freedom.
Find the entire interview here:
RD Interview: President Barack Obama
And further, from the White House web site regarding Veterans:
"For their service and sacrifice, warm words of thanks from a grateful nation are more than warranted, but they aren't nearly enough. We also owe our veterans the care they were promised and the benefits that they have earned. We have a sacred trust with those who wear the uniform of the United States of America. It's a commitment that begins at enlistment, and it must never end. But we know that for too long, we've fallen short of meeting that commitment. Too many wounded warriors go without the care that they need. Too many veterans don't receive the support that they've earned. Too many who once wore our nation's uniform now sleep in our nation's streets."
-President Barack Obama, March 19, 2009
Let us join with our President in remembering, and in acting to honor our "sacred trust."