You know, growing up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, I didn't always appreciate the Marines who inhabited the town. When I was a "cool" young college kid running around, I though I was big and bad enough to use the word "Jar head" to describe them one day in front of my father. At that time, My father had just retired after 30 years, as a Major, in the Marines. My father was a patient man. He was never one to speak just to hear himself talk, but on that particular day, he rouse up (and I mean he rouse up, on his one leg) and informed me in a very clear and "in charge" manner that it was a "Jar head" who was clothing and feeding me and I had better remember that the next time I felt the need to mouth off about one in the future. I never made that mistake again, and in fact I ended up married to a man, who at one time was under the command of my father in Okinawa. A fact that was not discovered until he was out of the Marines, and came to pick me up on a first date, but that's a another story for another day. Now years later, I am the recipient of the "Standing Tall Award", presented to me by then Major General D.M. Mize, the Commanding General of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for my work with the "St. Mary School Christmas Greetings from Home" program I had started here in Wilmington, NC.
My office is full of all kinds of colorful shinny objects but that award has always been the first thing I have hung and is center of attention on my wall. I have come to truly appreciate our Military and love all of them for their sacrifice to this Nation. We ask them to perform a tough job and they exceed all of our expectations. I am proud of my involvement with the Soldier Angels Program, the DAV Auxiliary (of which I am a life member) and various other local programs for our troops and very proud of the "marines" in my own life, My father, my husband and my brother-in-Law. If you do nothing else in your life, take the time to thank a member of our military, past and/or present, for their service to our Nation, and never forget American is the home of the free, because of the Brave.
The Soldier
It is the soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag,
who serves under the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.
By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC
