Putting face to a uniform. . .

I am not sure how I feel about this Armistice Day being transformed into Veterans' Day.  It is not that I have something against all veterans but only that sometimes when we enlarge a day of remembrance it means that we lose touch with the specific people we are remembering.  Everyone becomes nobody in particular.  

Living in a city with such a huge presence of active duty, former military, and retired military has left me with many faces to put to this day and a depth of appreciation for the many who have defended our nation, fought to protect our liberty, and gone the world over in the cause of American interests.  The numbers of those dead and wounded over the years is too great a number for me to imagine.  On Sunday morning I see the faces of many young men and women who are there in their civies but whose normal clothing are uniforms.  

We have chaplains and enlisted and officers.  They do all kinds of jobs in the military. They include mechanics, helicopter pilots, special forces, paratroopers, clerks, medics, and all kinds of folk.  They are tall and short, men and women, from cities and rural areas, but all display a remarkable sense of duty that makes me feel safe and secure.  More than this, it makes me feel a deep and abiding sense of gratitude toward those who have served and now serve.

Today when I think of those who have served us, I think of someone not a lot of folk remember.  His name was Phil Secker.  He was an academic with a doctorate and much scholarly research but he had many sides to him.  Though actively opposed to the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, he was intent upon supporting the troops who fought there. From 1967 to 1971, he was on active duty as an Army chaplain and volunteered for deployment to Vietnam.  While there, TIME magazine found him and found it odd to oppose a war but support troops; Phil didn't.  He received the Bronze Star for meritorious achievement in ground operations against hostile forces for serving in Saigon during all of 1969 among other medals and served as a chaplain in the Army Reserves until retiring in 1997 as a full colonel.  Phil and I knew each other in person when I served in the Atlantic District and maintained an email correspondence over his stewardship of the literary legacy of Arthur Carl Piepkorn, another noted military chaplain from our church body.  He died a month or so ago.  His family deserves the thanks of a grateful nation and I was richer for knowing Chaplain Secker.

As we observe Veterans Day (formerly Armistice Day and known as Remembrance Day for our Commonwealth friends), we lament that promise of the war to end all wars has not been kept.  Instead we find ourselves in conflict after conflict with even more breaking out across the globe.  Some are nearer to our homes and some are so far away we can barely pronounce the geographic names.  In the midst of it all are those men and women who have borne and continue to bear the lion's share of the burden of liberty's defense.  But don't just say a prayer of thanks, tell a veteran or active duty soldier "Thank you."