Veterans deserve our gratitude

Veterans Day 1945 was the first that millions of GIs observed in peace.

The formal surrender of Japan that ended World War II was just two-and-a-half months old. Repatriation had barely begun. Some stationed overseas – 7.6 million at war’s end – would not return home until June 1947.

Those fortunate survivors left behind 400,000 dead, a toll in the history of American conflicts exceeded only by the Civil War.

Now, time is claiming the last of that immense company of men and women who have been the rock stars among our veterans; the “greatest generation” that endured the Great Depression as adolescents, mobilized to fight the Axis nations, and returned to build an America with unparalleled prosperity.

Of course, World War I veterans – those for whom Veterans Day was established – preceded them, but less than a decade after the armistice ending that war, the Great Depression was their reward.

And they were a generation too young to bask in the wrap-around media of today that has kept the memories of our WWII veterans foremost because they were our fathers and mothers, or grandfathers and grandmothers.

Many of those veterans also fought in Korea, a war that lacked the grandiosity and finality of WWII.

Then came the Vietnam War. Those who fought there faced not only the bullets of the enemy, but the disdain of many who condemned their courage as the fruit of a condemnable tree.

Finally, with the Gulf War, the nation acknowledged the injustice of maligning Vietnam veterans for responding to a call to duty, however misguided it seemed at the time or in retrospect. And it is the soldiers, seamen, airmen and Marines of that generation who have overwhelmed Veterans Administration medical facilities.

In 2013, 35 percent of VA patients were Vietnam-era, almost as big a share as all other war-time veterans combined. And they, and even more so the wounded of the 21st century campaigns in the Middle East, arrive with more chronic ailments, thanks to the sophistication of the treatment they received on the battlefield, or in field hospitals.

Some who served in the Middle East suffer from the duress of repeated tours of duty over the longest period of continuing conflict in U.S. history.

We still have not grasped the measure of obligation we have taken on to assure the 20 million-plus veterans among us today get what they have earned in medical care, housing assistance and other benefits for them and their survivors.

Tuesday, the U.S. Senate approved a $79.7 billion budget for the VA.

But what is the measure in gratitude? For every freedom we enjoy, and everything else we have?

Less than 10 percent of all Americans today served in the military. What some endured is beyond imagination, hard as Hollywood may try to capture the chaos.

Seventy years ago, a nation of families touched in one way or another by WWII heard the stories first-hand, if the veterans chose to speak of them.

Many from all wars just want to be heard. They are rock stars, too, and this is a good day to listen.

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