People celebrate Memorial Day, which this year falls on May 27, but most probably don’t realize that this is Military Appreciation Month. Armed Forces Day is on May 18, and Military Spouses Appreciation Day is on May 10. The nation sets aside special days, indeed this whole month, to honor those who serve their country with a willingness to make sacrifices that 99% of us consciously avoid or hardly even contemplate.
But while many never consider military service for themselves, most also admire the military and the men and women in uniform who make it what it is. America’s armed forces, the most powerful in the world and in history, are celebrated grandly at big public events such as football games. But they are also honored in more private acts of appreciation and generosity, such as when soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen find that their restaurant bill or bar tab has already been paid by another customer who has, as often as not, slipped away quietly, neither wanting nor expecting thanks.
Why is this? It is, for sure, because we are grateful for the protection the armed forces give us and for the individuals who commit themselves to providing it. But it is more than that. It is also, I believe, a token of public admiration for an ethos of honor and duty that stands strongly outside the degraded wider culture, which is more tarnished by vacuous show and vulgarity, selfishness and instant gratification. Americans not only happen to admire the military; they want to admire the military, because they recognize it is in so many ways better than the society it defends.
[Opinion: Rep. Jim Banks: Make good on promises made to veterans]
The Washington Examiner magazine is also using this month to pay tribute to the military. Each of the three issues this May will include several articles looking at military units, the military ethos, individual heroes, practices, ceremonies, and policies.
This week, for example, in addition to this letter, our lead editorial is dedicated to military. We also publish two substantial military features. Willy Stern and Breck Walker write of the extraordinary Renaissance men who make up the Green Berets, a group of warriors in a class of their own. Peter Tonguette recollects the late Adm. John Stockdale, whose stoic philosophy made him a leader for seven years in the Hanoi Hilton. Our word of the week is “trauma” and is therefore, obviously, military-themed. And on the lighter side, Trent Reedy, who writes our Life in Uniform column every week, recounts his time sweating on the ground next to a problematic anti-tank mine and wondering whether his procedures manual couldn’t have come up with something better than suggesting he whack the 22 pounds of explosives with a spanner.
In other issues this month, we interview former Navy SEAL Rep. Dan Crenshaw, excerpt veteran Sen. Tom Cotton’s new book, examine the treatment of veterans returning to civilian life, and recount the three decades of Rolling Thunder, which will return to Washington this Memorial Day, for the last time.
[Read: A warrior class of their own]
