365 Project Day 315: Have You Thanked a Veteran Today?

Canon 5D Mark ll, 50 1.2L, 3.5 aperture, 1/250 shutter, 125 ISO

I opened my door and the first thing he said was “Have you thanked a veteran today?” I smiled. I reached out to shake his hand and answered him, “Not until now. Thank you!” No, he wasn’t collecting donations for any organizations. He was bringing me hay for my horses. I have only talked with him couple times, but the conversation is always lively with Mr. Robert Lee. Yes, as in Robert E. Lee. He says his daddy was bent on naming him that, southern man that he was.

He says as a rebellious 17 year-old he left home and joined the army. He couldn’t be deployed until he was 18. That is when he went to Vietnam. He spent a year there. He was a Sergeant with the 52nd infantry from 1967-68. He says he went 9 months without getting a scratch on him. Then in May of 1968, a 122 mm rocket shell landed right next time him, leaving him unconscious and his back badly injured. His men thought he was dead. After some time, he woke up much to the surprise of his fellow soldiers. After 6 weeks in a hospital he was allowed to go home.  He married his high school sweetheart, Sarah, in January of 1970. ” Almost 42 years,” he beams. He lights up when he speaks of her. I love that.

Now, Robert attends People’s Baptist Church in Flowery Branch, GA. He will talk to you about Jesus if you get him started. And I did. He’s a good man.

Have you thanked a Veteran today?

Psalm 1: 1-3 ~”Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”