Editorial: Thinking of sacrifice — of veterans

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 | 8:30 a.m.

It made the front pages last week when the Pentagon announced it would begin alerting 43,000 Reserve and National Guard troops that their services would be needed soon in Iraq. These are people who work as truck drivers, teachers, auto supply clerks, doctors, nurses, bakers, farmers. Thousands of other occupations are represented in our military forces, as are thousands of cities, towns and villages. The call from the Pentagon was a reminder once again that our troops come from every walk of American life. On this Veterans Day, it's appropriate to think about that and the one word that best describes the service of all of our military members -- sacrifice.

Whether they were drafted or volunteered, all members of our military throughout history have made sacrifices. For most members the toughest part was leaving their families behind for an unknown future -- never knowing if they would return. Then there were the other sacrifices, which began immediately. Many veterans will remember heading for their training base in a "cattle truck" -- crammed in with a hundred or so others. They remember spilling out to the fearful roaring of drill sergeants, whose job it was to teach the trainees that the comforts of home were history, at least for the next two or three years. No more private bedrooms. No more favorite foods. No more comfortable clothing. No more sleeping late. No more of anything, except 18-hour days of training and discipline, through bitter cold or extreme heat, through hard rain, drizzle, snow, mud, wi nd. Maybe that was the easy part. It was the nice days, when they could have been out enjoying their old life "back on the ! block," when perhaps it was the toughest to prepare for those 20-mile forced marches to the rifle range.

Veterans will remember even the biggest, loudest, most profane and "gung ho" member of their unit sprawled on his bunk, writing a letter home to his mom and dad, or his girlfriend, or his kid brother who needed some advice. On this day, non-veterans might want to imagine this scene -- a uniformed man or woman, hundreds of miles away from family, training every minute for six and a half days a week, finding a moment to write a letter home. It's a scene that dramatizes why veterans serve -- to protect their families and homeland.

Also to be imagined is the day basic and advanced training ends and the soldier, Marine, sailor or airman packs his duffel bag for his permanent duty assignment -- which again will likely be hundreds or thousands of miles from home. Life becomes a little better then -- the troop has made it through the hardest training and feels proud of the accomplishment. But the sacrifice continues. Long days stretching into months are ahead -- the training is not over, it never is in the military. Now it's time to learn a specialty, whether it's flying a fighter jet, being part of a tank crew, learning logistics or any of hundreds of other occupational specialties. Again, the long hours set in amid hardship -- the housing is Spartan, the food is so-so and often eaten on the fly, the pay is low and time for recreation is short. A leave to go home or get away for some re st goes by all too fast.

Some of the hardships and long hours and sacrifices are endured with stoicism, with super-human resolve. But our troops have the same blood flowing through them as the rest of us. Someone once observed that it's a military person's inalienable right to gripe. It's a right troops avail themselves of every day, some days every hour and minute. So what drives them to complete their missions despite their complaints, deprivations and difficulties? It has to do with honor. It's an honor to serve your country. It's hard to withstand a dust storm while on duty in Iraq. It's hard to keep your weapon in firing condition while moving forward in the most miserable and dangerous conditions you've ever experienced. But you keep moving forward because to do otherwise would be to let down your country and the troops who have gone before you -- who had it even worse.

These are the veterans and troops we honor today. The ones who kept moving forward, the ones now who keep moving forward, the ones whose sacrifice has earned every thought we can send their way today and on every other day.

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