Dear PvtJarHead & all those who served us (including the founder of this blog)
Thank you for your service.
Reading your “LIVID” reaction to the ex-Marine was profound and profoundly comforting.
May I have the privilege of telling you a few stories.
Civilian here, military daughter, raised in post WWII Los Angeles. My father skippered the LCT 549. I wrote about it on June 5, 2013 (“I have his flag ...”). My niece now has the flag, and yes, it has 48 stars ….
To one of the stories. On July 26, 2001, a little girl was born. On September 10, after maternity leave, the little girl’s mother went back to work in New York City. Mom did not come home on September 11. Yes, I have seen her name among those whom we lost. Her father raised her, at first alone, then re-married (it’s all good).
I am Vietnam Generation. I promised myself that after 9/11, I would dedicate my life to all of you who served, realizing by then that we did a lousy job of honoring my classmates. (I was dating a decorated Veteran after Stanford, he went on to medical school … bubble girl in California ….).
Hence Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where we are working on a non-opiate pain medication (yes, affordable, yes, could be used far forward) for our Wounded Warriors and our Veterans. And a possible drug therapy for blast-induced Traumatic Optic Neuropathy. Oh, working on an idea to treat SARS-CoV-2 encephalitis that may also treat the brain cancer that arises from brain “injury” from exposure to toxins in burn pits.
Which brings me to … “Thank you for your service.”
Maybe 2015, I brought a guest to the VA Palo Alto where I volunteered (shout out to the person who commented earlier today, also a VA volunteer), to their joint VA-Stanford one-day forum on neuroscience. Since my then-place was not suitable for sleepovers, my guest stayed at an AirBNB in Palo Alto with her service dog, Cruise. Her AirBNB hosts were Marines. When I went to pick her and Cruise up for our return trip to the airport, she turned and said to her house hosts (she is a retired two-star General), “Thank you for your service.”
Which is when I learned that I can say that to you with dignity, to honor your service.
My car has two bumper stickers, one from IAVA, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and one from Wounded Warrior Project. Now you know why I took that “not-so-little-anymore” girl to New York in 2016 for the IAVA Gala. Why I “volunteer teach” at EBV UCONN (Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities).
May I finish with another story, now reaching back to 2011 and the lede for this diary.
It was my second visit to meet then VCOS GEN Peter Chiarelli (article from Politico pretty good at capturing his fighting spirit) at the Pentagon. GEN Chiarelli had just announced his imminent retirement. I mumbled something about “Sir, I know your retirement is well deserved, but our country needs you.” He looked at me, and said nothing (right then, I knew he was doing something ….). Then after long pause, he said,
*THIS IS MY GIFT TO ALL OF YOU WHO SERVED …*
“There are many ways to serve our country.”
