Honoring our Veterans on This Day

Today we honor our veterans who have preserved and protected our country for most of our nation's history. Though I was of age during the mid to late 1960's when the Vietnam War was being waged, I never served in any branch of the Armed Forces during that time unless you want to count the one semester I spent in college Air Force ROTC back in 1966. I did, however, have many friends and classmates from high school and college that did serve with at least three making the ultimate sacrifice during that conflict. As a result, I have always had the utmost respect for those who have served our country.

In my own family, my dad, Garlin Scroggins,


and two of his brothers, Fermin and Oliver Scroggins, served in the Army in Europe during WW II with Oliver giving his life for his country at the age of 19 in February of 1945, and dad's youngest brother, Don, served in the early 1960's during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and later told me about sitting on a troop ship in Savannah harbor along with several thousand other soldiers for three days awaiting orders to invade Cuba if Russian ships carrying nuclear missile parts tried to run the U.S. naval blockade around that island nation. Fortunately for him and all the rest of us, the Russian's backed down and turned their ships around and dismantled the missile bases they had been constructing only 50 or so miles from our shores rather than go to war with the U.S. Everyone today should say thanks to those they know that have served and say a prayer for those who made the ultimate sacrifice.