Most everyone would know a veteran is the person who raises their right hand promising to defend the United States Constitution against foreign and domestic foes.  I have to agree.  Even though that makes every solder, sailor, marine, and guard a veteran, I believe most are overlooking the other “veterans.”  These are the parents, wives, husbands, grandparents and children of the veteran.  In my first four years as an enlisted member in the United States Air Force, I was deployed overseas on 90 day TDYs (temporary duty assignments) twice a year.  I was in a C-130 aircraft flying wing.  My new bride had to stay behind and somehow cope with being a new bride away from her parents as a nineteen year old in a strange city.  Later in my career, she had to worry about me going off to the desert in the first Gulf war not knowing if her husband was safe and hoping a blue staff car with military officers wearing their blue suits do not pull up in the drive way.  When I got home from the war she confided in me that she would watch the late news trying to get a glimpse of me on a video clip and when I never turned up on the news she would cry her heart out, most nights.

Yes, I am a United States Veteran but my dear wife of almost 33 years is also a veteran and she has paid her dues in tears, in worries, in raising our kids when I was away.  So Sunday, if you see a veteran, thank him or her……… and thank his spouse too.

David D. Andrews Sr., SMSgt, USAF (ret.)