Taking vets for granted

In case anyone needs to know, Sears is marking Veterans Day with "three-day hot buys."

For many people, that's what today is all about - a time to check out the sales, a holiday from work, a warm day to get some yard work done before the cold sets in.

That the day is set aside to honor the 19.6 million veterans in the United States is too often lost in translation.

"In all honesty, we take [veterans] for granted," says Mike Haskew, president of Community Bank of Chattanooga and author of the book "West Point 1915: Eisenhower, Bradley, And The Class The Stars Fell On."

When you volunteer for military service, "you commit yourself to something larger than you are, to an ideal, to a way of life, to freedom. Those who have fought, lived their lives, died or served in peace time are worthy of our respect," he says.

On Veterans Day, those currently serving in Afghanistan, Iraq or other places across the globe, he says, don't have the privilege of "sleeping in."

"They give up something of themselves," Haskew says. "Our freedoms, our nationals ideals are preserved through the effort and vigilance of veterans."

One of the men, Dwight Eisenhower, he writes about in his new book graduated from the United States Military Academy at the dawn of World War I. During the war, he wanted to be overseas but wound up training infantry troops outside San Antonio, Texas, and coaching football at Fort Sam Houston. Later, of course, he would be a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and responsible for the planning and supervision of the invasion of North Africa in 1942-1943 and France and Germany in 1944-1945.

As president of the United States, he would change the name of Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I, to Veterans Day, honoring veterans of all wars.

That 1915 West Point class of 164, Haskew says, was responsible for two five-star generals (Eisenhower and Omar Bradley), two four-star generals, seven lieutenant generals, 24 major generals and 24 brigadier generals, the highest percentage in the history of the academy of officers who achieved the rank of brigadier general and above.

"These guys were extraordinary," he says. "Some of the things they did defy description."

Officers, of course, weren't the only veterans who did extraordinary things during wars. Enlisted personnel showed no less valor in the defense of the country - just in the last 100 years - in being gassed during the Battle of Ypres during WWI, storming the beach at Normandy in WWII, surviving the bitter cold winters during the Korean War, sloshing through rice paddies in the wake of guerrilla fire during the Vietnam War, sidestepping land mines in Iraq or traversing the mountains of Afghanistan.

Those heroes, among others, include Chattanooga area Medal of Honor receipients Charles Coolidge, then just a technical sergeant, for his leadership under fire east of Belmont sur Buttant, France, on Oct. 24, 1944; Paul B. Huff, then a corporal, for his leadership during an exploratory mission near Carano, Italy, on Feb. 8, 1944; Desmond Doss, then a private and a conscientious objector, for his evacuation of wounded troops on the island of Okinawa on May 5, 1945, and Ray E. Duke, then a sergeant 1st class, for his gallantry after several of his men were isolated near Mugok, Korea, on April 26, 1951.

Many area residents, if they know those names at all, know about Coolidge Park, Paul Huff Parkway in Cleveland and Desmond Doss Highway in Walker County, Ga., but not the people associated with them. Duke, who hailed from Whitwell, has a library named after him at Camp Humphreys near Seoul, South Korea.

Today's military, of course, is all volunteer. No one is drafted into it; no one is forced to serve. Too often, if we don't have a family member serving, those serving abroad don't cross our mind.

But they should and not just on Veterans Day.

So if you're checking out a "hot buy" at Sears today or sleeping in while those in service wake early, pause a moment and give thanks for our veterans - and your freedom.

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