Category: Support the troops

The Tampa Bay Times reports about Andrew Lumish who owns a Chem-Dry upholstery and carpet cleaning franchise, and he’s a hobbyist photographer;

A few years ago, Lumish, 45, of Land O’Lakes, whose other hobby is photography, carried a camera into the Oaklawn Cemetery, an aged Tampa burial ground.

“It was beautiful,” he said.

He shot photos of historic graves. He sought more cemeteries because they are “gorgeous,” he said, and because he loves history.

He discovered that the bodies buried beneath a lot of the headstones he saw belonged to military veterans.

But “something bothered me,” he said. “Their final resting places were total disasters.”

The granite, marble and sandstone monuments that marked their graves had been battered by bad weather. Mold, mildew and lichens had grown over them. Some of the headstones had been there for more than a hundred years.

“They’d been neglected from the time they’d been buried,” Lumish said.

So Lumish spends his free time cleaning up veterans’ headstones. From Fox5 DC;

Lumish has cleaned about 300 headstones in two and a half years. Along with the photographs, Lumish researches the veteran and posts some history about them. They’ve belonged to every branch of the military, and have fought in the Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.

When he finishes each job he does the same thing. He told the Tampa Bay Times, “I thank them for their service, and walk away.”

Green Thumb sends us a story from Phoenix, Arizona about six-year-old Bella Barton who started a lemonade stand business to help homeless veterans;

Dozens of neighbors came by to support her. By the time she was done, she had around $90 raised for veterans.

Bella dropped off the jar of cash to the Phoenix VA on Monday.

“On behalf of the resource center, we want to thank you for all your hard work and collecting all these great donations that we can use to help our veterans,” said Melissa Meierdierks, Community Resource and Referral Center Coordinator.

Bella rewarded for her good deed with a T-shirt and was named an “honorary veteran.”

“I was just amazed that someone in such a small package has such a huge heart,” Meierdierks said.

Bella says that she just wants to be a good citizen – she’s on the right path. Thanks, Bella.

I guess it is that time of year again for these pieces. This one from the New York Times and the message comes from a Marine, Hunter Garth;

Mike Freedman, a Green Beret, calls it the “thank you for your service phenomenon.” To some recent vets — by no stretch all of them — the thanks comes across as shallow, disconnected, a reflexive offering from people who, while meaning well, have no clue what soldiers did over there or what motivated them to go, and who would never have gone themselves nor sent their own sons and daughters.

To these vets, thanking soldiers for their service symbolizes the ease of sending a volunteer army to wage war at great distance — physically, spiritually, economically. It raises questions of the meaning of patriotism, shared purpose and, pointedly, what you’re supposed to say to those who put their lives on the line and are uncomfortable about being thanked for it.

Mr. Garth, 26, said that when he gets thanked it can feel self-serving for the thankers, suggesting that he did it for them, and that they somehow understand the sacrifice, night terrors, feelings of loss and bewilderment. Or don’t think about it at all.

Freedman goes on to say that he prefers the way people treated veterans after Vietnam; “At least with Vietnam, people spit on you and you knew they had an opinion.”

Spoken like someone who wasn’t there after Vietnam. I didn’t go to Vietnam, but I experienced the public backlash. Many people who I encountered were appreciative of veterans service and they expressed that appreciation subtly, which I am more accustomed to than the outward expression today. You know, like the stewardess that guides you to the unbooked First Class seat even though you know that you bought the cheaper seat. There was no social media to tell the world about it, though.

I’ll admit that the “Thank you for your service” is a little bit embarrassing, and it has only happened in recent years, you know, even though my service was decades ago. But it is much better than the days when a civilian saw vets as a “mark” to cheat. When vets couldn’t get treatment from the VA, and no one really cared whether you could or not. If scores of veterans died in Arizona without treatment in this day and age, can you imagine how many were lost post-Vietnam, when no one gave a rat’s ass?

So, the pendulum has swung back to the other side from the Vietnam years. Its my opinion that tolerating a few knee-jerk “Thank you for your service” is a damn sight better than the alternative. I’ve given out lots of “thank you for your service” but it wasn’t to make me feel better about myself, it was to reassure a young veteran, who couldn’t be sure if I was a veteran or not, that his or her service has value beyond their own heart. The same way, I reflexively “welcome home” every Vietnam veteran I meet.

We also have to tolerate the valor thieves because suddenly our service has value in the eyes of the public. It is one of the prices that we have to pay for a culture that has no real heroes. It is a little embarrassing sometimes, but it is a small price to pay and like I said, it beats the alternative. So quitcher bitchin’.

The folks at Prank It Forward sent us this video of something they did for a veteran, in the form of a prank;

Reaching out to share a prank collaboration between Break.com, Extra TV, and Michelle Obama. They teamed up as part of Break.com’s feel-good Prank It FWD campaign to surprise John, an unemployed veteran who is struggling to make ends meet and find a job. John’s grandfather, who raised him, recently lost his battle with cancer and John had to sell his motorcycle to handle the medical bills.

Prank it FWD enlisted NCIS’ Michael Weatherly – John’s favorite actor – to help prank John. After he performs some fake ‘stand in’ work on a set, they gift John a brand new motorcycle and ultimately offer him a job at Universal Studios.