Veterans essay

Veterans risk their lives every day for us; they even risked being injured for us. Their lives could change at any point in time during the war. “Mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers, and grandparents can go to sleep at night without worrying,” said Greg Blackburn. He also said, “A conflict is when two people throw stones at each other and a war is when two people shoot each other.” It is important to honor

veterans every day and not just once a year because they serve us every day, not just one day a year.

My grandpa Bill was in the Vietnam, but some of the others he fought with might know him as William Houghtby. My grandpa was a welder for the core of engineers. He said it was hot, humid, very noisy, and rainy. It would rain for 20 days in a row it was called monsoon season, lots of bugs worse than here in the summertime, and guns, bombs, helicopters going off at night. He was in a couple of fights with a couple of guys. He got to shoot the gun a couple of time at the people who he thought was the enemy because they

were on the other side of the fence, and the other side of the fence was open range. He was just there more less having fun, he didn’t do much because there wasn’t much going on during the end of the war, 70 or 71. He was only 18 and he was fighting and/or helping. He hauled heavy machinery back and forth between bases; they carried them on cattle trailer but it hauled humans and had little windows so they could see out. “We should have stayed and won the war because we lost 50,000 thousand people and in my opinion it was like a waste for those people to lose their lives because we didn’t win the war,” is a quote said by my grandpa. He also said all the vets were treated terribly when they got home compared to how we treat them now. Ever since the Vietnam we have started treating veterans a lot better than we did before.

So, I am so thankful for my grandpa and many other veterans that served for our country. I thank you so much for all the ones who died or risked their lives. I have met many veterans and some of the veterans I didn’t even know they were veterans at first. Once I found out they were veterans I thanked them for their service. It is respected to show your thanks towards veterans, so I encourage you to do the same.