Thanks for soldiers.

Just about every year since we've lived here, except in 2008 when I had a 3-week-old, we've gone to the war memorials on Veterans Day.

My kids' school district doesn't get Veterans Day off, which I think is ridiculous, given where we live. They do get Columbus Day off, which in my opinion is a fake holiday since by all accounts, Christopher Columbus was a pretty big jerk. Maybe it is a timing thing--Veterans Day is not a Monday holiday, and Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks later, and it's convenient to have a 3-day weekend in the middle of October instead--but I think it's a shame.

So now you know my opinion on that. :) I told my kids they could skip school today to come with me, and funnily enough Theo really didn't want to skip school. So he went to school, and Ida and Lars and I went to DC.

I learned about getting gate passes for an honor flight from my friend Amy. (Super easy--just go online. Honorflight.org... although I used honorflightgreeter.com which does the DCA flights) Honor flights fly to DCA, IAD, and BWI throughout the warmer months. They're meant to provide elderly veterans a subsidized opportunity to see the war memorials. And they invite anyone who wants to to come meet the arriving flights at the gate, shake their hands, talk to them for a second, and cheer them along. Or like the lady who was standing next to us, you could kiss each arriving veteran on the lips. I quite enjoyed that. Maybe the veterans did too.

So I signed myself and the kids up for the last flight arriving before they end for the winter, which was this morning. We arrived an hour early as instructed, and I'm glad we did because the flight was 30 minutes early. So we had just enough time to get our passes and go through security.

There was a choir there which I think were retired military--anyway they sang a bunch of military songs and were very professional. There were balloons and flags and a few hundred other greeters including active soldiers in full uniform. I didn't get many pictures because I was busy clapping and shaking hands and talking to people. It was such a sweet experience and we'll definitely do it again.

Afterward we went to Iwo Jima (aka the USMC war memorial)

And the Vietnam Wall, where we found my uncle's brother's name, as we have done many times. Ida (totally on her own) made a little leaf bouquet and asked for a piece of paper to write his name so she could leave it there. She made one from Lars too.

We also visited Korea, which is one of my favorite spots on the mall. It's sad but I still like it. We chatted with a man who had fought in the war, and he said that if he comes to that memorial at night when there's snow on the ground, to him it feels much like it felt when he was in Korea.

We parked in a one-hour spot, so we didn't have time to make it down to World War II but we'll get there next time.

It can feel a little awkward at first to mingle among so many people who have something so big in common and you're not part of the "club." But for the most part it is a very positive, though sobering, experience. We met several friendly soldiers and veterans along the way and talked with them. We also met several service dogs and Ida played a little matching game someone gave her to identify the various dogs and their ages and skills.

I don't like anything about war. "Renounce war and proclaim peace" is a mantra (and scripture) that I think about increasingly. But I feel so deeply for the many veterans who are all around me, as well as those who died or went missing in action or were held prisoner, and especially those who live with physical or mental disabilities because of their service. I don't know what life is like for them, but I believe they deserve respect. They gave everything, and many of them didn't ask to do it but they did it anyway. 

When you walk around the Mall on Veterans Day, over and over you'll hear veterans who have never met greeting each other, "Welcome home." I hadn't ever noticed that in years past, maybe because we normally go later in the afternoon when it's less crowded. But I thought that was so nice. Sad, but nice.