Posts

Showing posts from November, 2018

What it means to be a Veteran

Image
This past Friday, I was the guest speaker for a Veterans Day program at a local school, 33 years running and a fixture in the Fox Valley community. Today, as we celebrate Veterans Day and mark 100 years since the end of WWI, I'm sharing my remarks here. ***************** Good morning, esteemed guests, faculty and students of J.R. Garretts Middle School. I am delighted and honored to be here today. A special thank you to Mr. Scholz and Mrs. Kane for giving me the opportunity to join you as we observe Veterans Day, a day recognizing each of us who have served this great nation in our Armed Forces. I’ll begin by asking: what do you think it means to be a veteran? Very literally, it means a person who has served in a military force. And, of course, there are many different branches of the military and ways that one can serve in the armed forces. Beyond the dictionary, though, what does it mean, deep down and in the fiber of who I am? The answer to that question is found