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Please Just Read WWII made my father a broken man. But my stepfather, at Guadacanal when the Japanese decided to take it back and being reduced to the teens in his unit several times, came home with the strength to survive even the prognosis his feet should be amputated from the “jungle rot†he had sustained. Hell no!, he told the VA doctors…and that was the last that pathetic mal-practicing little group saw of him. Of course, I was not so wise. And in my lengthy foray among VA hospitals, in one I was an in-patient assistant registrar. While admitting new patients, I didn’t always stop with reading who I needed to contact as next-of-kin or to see if any prior orders pertained. I even got to know some of these men myself. The story, my friends, doesn’t end in the coming home. And both invasions of Iraq are no different. Don’t just wave flags on this Memorial Day, take an active part in helping to improve conditions in these VA hospitals. And you can do that just by visiting someone in them and letting know watchful eyes are observing. What these men and women have endured should be all they need endure imposed by those they have gallantly served. _____my modest observance of Memorial Day James C. Horak, USN, SN: 5928151 |
This Poem was Critiqued By: Mark Steven Scheffer On Date: 2009-06-02 16:07:25
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 1.00000
JCH,
Great post, even if not a poem. The suggestion of visiting a wounded vet strikes a core. It is right out of the seven corporal works of mercy, with the timely addition of veteran on Memorial Day.
Timely, charitable, and wise.
MSS