Celebrating Veteran's Day: Have You Thanked a Veteran Lately?

I don't think any of us can say that we don't know someone who is currently serving in or who has served in a war. My family is full of veterans: my dad served in the Army in Vietnam, my grandfather was in the Navy in World War II, my mom's parents both served in the Royal Canadian Airforce during World War II, and I even have a relative who was a bugle boy in the Civil War! This day is for all of those brave men and women who put their lives on the line in the name of our country, but I don't think we should just limit our "thanks" to one day of the year.

I've been traveling quite a lot in the past few years, and whenever I'm in airports I notice young men and women in their military uniforms – they are either being shipped out somewhere or coming home for a visit. One time in particular, I was at the airport in Phoenix and saw a young man in Army fatigues standing about waiting for his boarding call. A random woman came over to him, touched his arm, and said "thank you." As she walked away, her husband patted him on the back, and also said thanks. At that moment it struck me: Why don't more people do this? Why don’t I do this?

I'm not looking to start a great movement here, but I think it would be nice if we took ourselves out of the mundane routines in the airport, at the grocery store, or while walking down the street and just gave a smile, a wave, or a verbal "thank you" to our fellow Americans in uniform.


- Elizabeth Millar, Senior Marketing Coordinator, ABC-CLIO, and former resident blogger for Pop Culture Universe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABC-CLIO has great resources to expand your knowledge of veterans and military history including the recently released book Encyclopedia of the Veteran in America as well as Serving America's Veterans: A Reference Handbook, Soldier's Heart: Close-up Today with PTSD in Vietnam Veterans, and the robust database World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society.