Veterans Day

                When I was eight, I saw a commercial for Casey’s Pizza where a young boy bought a pizza for a solider who just came home from war and had no where to go. This image has stayed with me because I thought that everyone had a home. As I became older, I realized that a lot of veterans struggle, and that’s why we need to honor them every day…not just one day out of the year.

Did you know that veterans make up more than 12% of homeless? Many vets come home from war without any money, food, water, or home to go to. After what they do for us, they should get better treatment than that. Veterans do many things for us, such as they put their lives on the line, so we can live a free life. If we didn’t have vets, then we would not have the things we have today. You would not have the freedom to go to school or walk around town with your friends.  I’m not saying that all people treat veterans with no respect, because there is something called the honor flight.

What is the honor flight?  In 2005 Earl Morse, a physician assistant and a retired air force captain thought that veterans didn’t get enough recognition, so he decided that he wanted to pay his respect in some type of way. He then realized that most of the world war II members could not travel to Washington DC to see their memorial. So he called in 300 private pilots to see if they would take the veterans to the memorial. He thought that this is a respectful way to say thank you to all of the veterans and many of the vets that went of this flight have enjoyed it. The honor flight is a non-profit organization that transports U.S veterans to go visit memorials with no cost from the vets. There are 6 airplanes from Springfield that go out to each state at least three times a year and picks up Veterans. Earl takes the veterans out to lunch and then takes them to Washington to see memorials to honor the U.S vets that                                                                                                       have fought in the respective wars.

These are many reasons why you should always honor a veteran all the time and not just one day of the year, so thank a veteran the next time you see one and be thankful for everything they do for you.