The memories of a veteran are as varied as can be,
Some involve sorrow, others genuine glee.
To have learned new things and seen new places
While trying to put names to remembered faces.

To have given your all and passed the test
Brings joy in knowing that you have done your best.
At other times, however, to have tried and failed
Yet, in the end to have still prevailed.

On some missions wondering how you had made it through, Accomplishing what few had the courage to do.
Sometimes, regardless of how hard you would try,
You would find yourself unable to do anything but cry.

Upon learning that a buddy had given his life
In the heat of battle, amidst unbelievable strife.
Some of these things that a warrior must endure
Puts metal in his backbone, that is for sure.
  
To ask one if he would ever do it again,
Many would affirm without any spin.
To have succeeded in defeating a menacing foe
Makes one eager to again go.

A few made the choice to from duty flee
Thinking that in another country they could be free.
The freedom they enjoyed in their cowardly state,
Is to most of us, however, a miserable fate.

The service of no two was exactly the same,
Most never experienced prestige or fame.
They went and stayed till the job was done,
Then returned home for their day in the sun.

They came from all over the land,
Some very young, others old.
There was in them all something grand,
That needs to be continually told.

That “something” that in them all was found,
That simply could not be obscured,
Was a devotion to duty and honor profound
That to the end endured.

In Asia, Europe, Africa, and more,
They answered their country’s call.
And there on foreign, distant shore
They courageously, silently did fall.

There still are some whose remains
The location of which only God is sure.
The freedoms that they died to obtain
Prayerfully will forever endure.

Gratitude is to them surely due,
If it could be properly expressed.
This, obviously, we cannot do
Except by public address.

To soar into the wild blue yonder,
Is a thought about which he had often pondered.
He had often dreamed on sleepless nights,
What it would be like to someday take flight.

In his youth, much time he would spend,
Thinking about that exciting end.
Would he be able to ever realize
The fulfillment of flying into those blue skies?

As he into the teen years entered,
This thought was still not completely splintered.
Although he figured it would never be,
He still hoped that realization he would possibly see.

As young adulthood for him began,
He saw in his life a change of plans.
A duty he sensed, so enlistment was started,
And into a military career he departed.

The “job” that he did for much of his career,
Did not include that which was, to him, still dear.
To be a flyer had, in his mind, faded away,
It was for a much earlier day.
  
Late in his career, as an “old man”,
An amazing thing happened, and a changed plan.
An opportunity to fly was to him presented,
And pursuit in that venture he never relented.

Much training was required for this position,  
And into this world he was ready to transition.
As an aerial gunner in the “Special Operations” world,
He found himself suddenly hurled.

The training was very tough, no doubt,
But this was what he had dreamed about.
He never lost sight of reaching that goal,
Even though considered, by many, too old.

The many missions he was privileged to fly,
All over the world into that blue sky,
Brought to him much joy indeed,
He was able to experience that for which he did plead.

The excitement that he still to this day knows  
Increases more as the older he grows.
You ask how I know about this joy,
It is really quite simple – I was that boy.