Six Wars, Six Vets, Six Stories of Courage
Parade, 6 Nov 2011
Part 2 of 2
PARADE: What do you take away from your service?
HAGOS: You don’t appreciate the price of freedom until you’ve served. Every morning on patrol I’d see Iraqi kids living in a shack, about 10 people in one room that barely had running water and lights. Those things humble you. And it made me wake up.
PARADE: Wake up to what?
HAGOS: To say, “Wow, I was so naïve back at home. I took a lot of things for granted.” It made me go back to my roots and think, “My parents brought me here for a reason, and if I ever make it out of this war, I don’t want to waste that opportunity.” My mom and dad, they’re janitors. They clean bathrooms and hospital rooms to make a living. They weren’t given the opportunity to get educated or make something of themselves. So when I came back, it took a few years, but I started to realize, “There’s more to life. Don’t forget what you’ve seen in Iraq.”
PARADE: How should Americans observe Veterans Day on Friday?
GARNER: If you know a veteran, offer a simple thank-you. It goes a long way. “Thank you and we appreciate your service.”
KESSLER: I’m particularly pleased when the minister asks all of us who have served to stand. That recognition is important.
LETTS-SMITH: Our town has a field of flags for vets. I had a flag last year. It’s beautiful.
PARADE: Even that little thing makes a difference, knowing that there’s a flag flying for you?
LETTS-SMITH: It’s really not for me. It’s driving by a nearby field covered with thousands of flags and realizing that every single one represents somebody who felt so strongly about this nation that they were willing to put their lives on the line for it.
HAGOS: There are still people losing their lives. While we’re sleeping here at night, there are people being shot at, being ambushed, in Afghanistan or Iraq, away from their families, their kids, their wives, their mothers. Every year I go and talk to the kids, and I tell them the same thing: Don’t celebrate Veterans Day because it happens to be Veterans Day. Veterans Day, to me, is every day.
http://www.parade.com/news/veterans/index.html