One day a year America recognizes her Veterans on this side of the grass. Memorial Day is for the ones on the other side who have reached room temperature. Regardless, there is much hoopla. Veterans are getting to be big business. Soon someone will come along (probably from the DAV) and “brand” his or her product Veteran and it will become inviolate. We will no longer be allowed to use the term ourselves without paying royalties to the owner. The VA, much like the NFL, will license the VA Seal and the For he who shall have borne the Battle to the highest bidder. Large Insurance companies will seek to obtain the name and incorporate it into their Corporate Logo. I mean it figures this will be next. With Congress forbidding any bonuses to VA employees, there will simply have to be some quid pro quo. Tanqueray is not cheap regardless of what they tell you in Sioux Falls. 

As an aside, I would point to the picture above. It’s on the right next to the highway after you pass the front gate of Ft. Myer on your way into DC. I lived there off and on most of my life before I joined and I can’t count how many Cub Scout field trips that included this. It’s very impressive close up for 8 year olds. It exudes well, Victory with a capital V.  There are many monuments to the military but the Iwo Jima flag raising was an epic moment. And, much like the sporadic arrival of MIA remains at Wheeler AFB in Honolulu where they tow the derelict C-17 out of the hanger with the bagged and tagged guys on board, it must be re-enacted for the cameras. That does not detract for a moment from the historical significance but it seems rather hokey to have to recreate history.

Can you imagine if they had photography on Christmas Eve of 1776? “Whoa there, Gen. Washington. Could you extend your sword in your hand and point toward Trenton one more time? My flash didn’t go off.”  Imagine if they’d asked Gen. MacArthur to reboard the LST and come ashore again to “get the sun just right” over his left shoulder. Christ. He’d have to change his pants because they were wet up to the knees. It just isn’t the same. History has a caché that cannot be orchestrated. It is chaos by its very nature.

Fortunately, that’s all behind us as Veterans and we get our one square down at Applebee’s on Monday so we have that going for us. Member John has also equipped us with a list of go-tos and find the bargains that are available to us Monday. Start planning your field trips, Cub Sprouts.

Here’s the freebies  Veterans Freebies 2013

Here’s the discounts  Discounts

And we here at Ask Nod heartfeltly would like to thank each and every one of you who served for your sometimes thankless jobs and your devotion to America. Just as we cannot reconstruct the past (even though the VA often does), nor can we turn the clock back and get our tickertape parades when we came home from SEA, we also cannot forget that we would have indubitably done it all over again in a heartbeat-even if we knew the eventual outcome and consequences today.