A Veteran’s Take Christmas 2004He is out there, spending this Christmas virtually homeless. He is dirty, hasn’t showered in a week or more, looks like his clothes could walk off on their own power. If you saw him on the roadside looking like this you would probably turn your head and just keep on driving. No need taking the risk of picking up someone looking like that.He sleeps wherever he can catch a wink or two, but his lifestyle doesn’t allow for much sleep these days. No clean bedding or sweet dreams. He may crash in a building or out in the open, huddled in a corner in the rain. Welcome doors don’t open when he walks by.He misses his family badly, but he knows he can’t go home. It just isn’t that easy. He hasn’t talked to his kids in months, and wonders if they even remember his face or will recognize him when he does go home. Many will never make that trip home. Some haven’t seen infants born in recent months and couldn’t even imagine the smell of a baby if their life depended on it. There are so many spouses out there raising kids on their own and working a full-time job to make ends meet.He clings to tattered photographs that he carries in his shirt pocket and prays for a letter. These are his most prized possessions. Many of these people can carry all of their current possessions on their backs. Sometimes he and his friends don’t even have soap or any of the common things, much less the finer things in life. To have a radio to listen to or even cold water and hot food would be nice. Some days it is just the air temperature that dictates everything.He chose this path for himself, and some hate him for this choice. Some say that he was not good enough for anything else. He and "his kind" have made this choice for centuries, though. It isn’t like they are high paid, and few are ever well known. But they still go.He is the American military service member. A man or a woman, they could be a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine. This Christmas there are many stationed at bases all over the world, as there are every year. But they are also there in the combat zone. This time it is the mountains of Afghanistan and the cities of Iraq. They live in constant danger, doing the most dangerous job there is.It has been this way on and off for all of our history. From the trenches of Europe, to the tundra of Siberia and the jungles of Asia they have served. They are highly qualified members of society, some of the best the United States has to offer. They are young and they are determined and they are serving us. They are the face of America.Curtis HendelAdrian
