PROUD VETERAN

Cindy & I attended the Purdue basketball game Tuesday night and we were excited to see our Boilers. A special event happened before the start of the game that was very humbling to me.

As with all sporting events, the game started with the singing of the National Anthem. As I turned to my left to look at the flag, and listened to the playing and singing of the anthem, I noticed in the stands underneath the flag, an elderly man, singing proudly. As I watched him, it was obvious to me that he was of the age to be a veteran of WWII.

I smiled as I continued to watch him sing. He was proud…very proud. He stood upright and at attention as if he was saluting his commanding officer. He sang loudly and proudly, mouth wide open as he sang, as if everyone else stopped singing, the people on the other side of the arena would have been able to clearly hear him.

During the United States involvement in WWII, 16 million men and women served. Of those, nearly 300,000 died and almost 700,000 were wounded.

At the 2000 census, approximately 5.7 million veterans of WWII were still living. With a conservative estimate of 1000 of those veterans dying per day, some 3.6 million have died since that census. That would leave approximately 2 million veterans still alive today. Cindy’s dad, Moe, was one of those proud veterans, and he left us earlier this year.

Ironically as I write this, there is a PBS special showing a group of veterans that have taken a bus trip to the WWII monument in Washington, D.C. It is a very emotional journey for them as they go to pay respect to the men and women, their friends and their family members, who didn’t make it home, to whom the memorial is dedicated.

At every opportunity I get, I try to say a personal word of appreciation to our WWII veterans whom I meet. I hope that we are proud of the men and women who have served in that war, and all wars.

May the veteran that I saw proudly singing the National Anthem at the Purdue game, continue to sing loudly and proudly for a long time.

Dan