Do You Sleep Peacefully in Your Bed at Night?
It technically wasn’t coffee, but I will count it among my thousand cups. It was a great lunch with Tom Solomon, US Air Force Academy, Class of ’69. He and I are part of a couple groups that he founded, one that meets regularly for breakfast on the second Friday of each month at the Westchase Marriott [all graduates of military academies welcome], and one that meets for lunch on the fourth Fridays at the same location [Air Force Academy graduates]. These meetings are filled former Air Force fighter pilots, Army Special Forces types, astronauts, naval aviators and engineers, Marine pilots, and Coast Guard [current and reserve] and Merchant Marine veterans. This lunch, however, was an “off-site meeting”, a one-on-one apart from the normal networking interface.
Tom is a lawyer [www.tomsolomon.com] - he’s a business lawyer, and he specializes in helping small businesses [like mine] “get legal” and stay out of trouble. But we were focused on someone else that day- Tom had just attended a fundraiser the previous evening where the speaker was Ollie North – yep, that one, Iran-Contra and all that. Tom provided me some startling statistics that Colonel North had mentioned, and the exact numbers escape me, but this is the gist of it:
The average combat service of an American soldier in World War II, the greatest generation soldiers, was about six months; in the Korean Conflict, it was almost 9 months; the average combat tour of duty in SouthEast Asia [VietNam] was 12 months. But the average combat exposure for today’s soldier in a “normal” 60-month enlistment is almost 45 months. Almost four years. Imagine a young man or woman entering the service at age 18, who, by the time he or she is 23, will have spent one sixth of his or her life deployed into combat areas.
I am a veteran myself, having served almost ten years in the Air Force and another thirteen in the Guard/Reserves. I flew fighters and protected my country, sometimes in remote assignments and sometimes in south Florida. I volunteered to go to “the war”, but I was not sent. I have never fired a shot in anger, nor have I been subjected to enemy fire. Yet every month, and sometimes twice a month, I sit and associate with men and women who have.
Tom went to the Air Force Academy, intending to fly. Before graduation, nature played him a cruel trick, and his eyesight deteriorated to the point that he was ineligible for flight school. So committed to service in that difficult period of the late ’60s was he, that he secured an assignment as an Intelligence Officer in SouthEast Asia. And I respect him for that. Not only did he find a way to serve, he also figured out how to get on flight status and flew with the Nails [forward air controllers], for which he received a Bronze Star, an Air Medal, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm.
And I applaud his service. Tom learned, as did we all who have attended our nation’s great military academies, that “service before self” is more than a slogan. Tom joined, without reservation, the long line of men and women who have offered, and continue to offer, to die, if need be, so that we may all enjoy the benefits we do in this great country of ours.
I am working with Project Wounded Warrior, a volunteer organization aiming to support returning veterans from our current warfighting who have given of life and limb. It is a humbling experience to interact with men and women the age of my son and daughter who have given so much, yet to see no sense of anger or resentment. As we work to assist these brave soldiers in their re-integration into society, their gratitude embarrasses me as I consider my feeble efforts compared to what they have done for me.
I have to admit that I cry every time I hear the National Anthem, remembering the men and women, friends all, who have given “the last full measure” so that others do not need to. Same thing for “Taps”. It embarrasses my step-daughters, but the tears run shamelessly as the names and faces “parade” through my mind.
I recall a quote from George Orwell, the British author, that “Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.“ And that is true yet today. I ask us all to take notice of today’s soldiers, sailors and airmen who stand in harm’s way on our behalf, protecting us to agree or disagree with war, to respect or not respect the role of the military. And they do it willingly, generally without quarrel nor concern for others.
Being willing to lay down your life for another or for your country does not mean that you want to lay down your life for your country or another- simply that you will if asked. And so, every Friday, you will find me wearing a red article of clothing of some kind: shirt, tie, whatever I can manage, because our veterans deserve so much more than an annual holiday. They deserve to be remembered every day, but failing that, perhaps you can join me, and Tom, and countless others who – as a minimum – remember them every Friday.
I do it because I understand “integrity” and I understand “service before self” and I understand “excellence in all we do” – the core values of fighting men and women the world around.
And I do it because I sleep peacefully in my bed at night.
And I know whom to thank for that.
As for Tom, I like how this guy thinks.
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