It may be just a day off for many, but for Senate President Don Gaetz and more than 2.5 million volunteers who stepped up to defend the United States, Veterans Day is always “fresh.”
In Gaetz’s holiday email message, “fresh” means feelings and memories of veterans are “very real, sometimes searing and painful,” as they witnessed friends and brothers in arms fall, never to get up.
Gaetz notes one such hero: Sgt. Joe Deslauriers, who “pulled himself up straight in his wheelchair to thank the community for his new ‘Home for a Hero’ in Destin.”
Some veterans have wounds you can see — like Deslauriers – while others need a closer look to see the ravages of war, such as thousands where “traumatic brain injuries (that) impair their actions but cannot quench their spirits.”
In Gaetz’s North Florida district, there are “old soldiers” who stand up first and straightest when the Flag passes, and they are first to honor and thank those young warriors marking a new, fresh Veterans Day.
Whether “old” soldiers or new ones just returning home, Veterans Day should always be “fresh,” says Gaetz, as should our gratitude for their sacrifice.
