Most Veterans, including myself, don’t look for help. Most of the Veterans in this country never discuss their time in Service to this great Country. It is possible that you have a neighbor, coworker or a friend who served and you would have never known that they did. Veterans have always been a quiet group. Until a discussion is raised about defending this great land of ours. I would bet that many of you have grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins that served and never speak of their time in. My two grandfathers and uncles never discussed war, conflicts or the violence they experienced while wearing the uniform. I served during the Cold War. Every day was a day that the threat of war between the then U.S.S.R. and the U.S. was a very real possibility. In fact, towards the end of my Medic training in San Antonio, TX, our Platoon Leader called us all into a formation and informed us that we were deploying to Lebanon to fight against Soviet backed Rebels. Reflecting back is sounds very scary today. But then, it was exciting and we couldn’t wait to defend our country. We were trained and ready to go. Since serving in the Army, I have tried to continue serving in many different ways without a US Army approved uniform. But, I continue to think about the new soldiers and those returning from combat deployments. How can I help them today? Well, I can fight with them; I’m a little past my prime, I can’t hire all of them, I can’t give them all a home or a car. If I could do these things for them, I would. So, what can I do? I can give to organizations that help support them when they come home. There are too many to mention here. Just Google; how can I help Veterans? There are plenty of resources that help a Veteran to, find a job, housing, medical care, food sources, etc. Or, you could support Veterans Research! There are 82 Veterans Research Non Profit Corporations around the nation that support and facilitate Research programs at the VA Medical Centers. This is very important work. It brings the best, most innovative research programs directly to the Veteran. Not only will you be supporting state of the art medicine that helps Veterans today, you will be assuring that the next group of Veterans will revive the best medicine we can offer. You can find a Veterans Non Profit Corporations near you or by going to this link. NAVREF is the nation association of these 82 nonprofit corporations. Or you can support ours at www.cervf.org. The donation you make will ensure that Veterans today, tomorrow and in the future will receive access to the most important medical breakthroughs. Thank you! I’ll leave with this quote from an Iraq Vet who participated in one of our Clinical Trials. He told me what other Vets always say: “I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing this for the ones who come after me”.
Have you ever asked yourself – What can I do to give back to our Veterans who have given so much to us?
