When I was four, I visited Vietnam and Korean Veteran Memorials in Washington D.C with my family.  Standing in front of the wall with thousands of name on it, the metallic sculptures of soldiers with rain coats on their tired bodies, looking at their faces coated with sweat  and their fearless determined eyes, the little girl was wondering what does those mean to her.  Years after, I looked again at the pictures that I was smiling under the sunshine, in front of the wall with 58,000 engraved names on it, of soldiers who had died, I started to understand the words inscribed into the stone wall:  “Freedom is not free.”  My mind pondered to itself:  If freedom is not free, then what is the price?

Today, I still try to find the answer.  It seems to me that the answer was written all over the history that I have just begun to understand.

When the Marines charged through Omaha Beach as German machine gun bullets buffeted their bodies, dyeing the water red, Mom was patting her baby to sleep with a lullaby, not fearing Hitler’s bomb destroying their dreams.  When platoon troops trudged through waist-high swamps and rainy, humid Southeast Asian jungles, Grandma was basking in the sunshine and tending to her garden without worrying dictators taking her freedom away.  When the army bomb squad risked their lives to destroy lethal explosives under the sweltering hot sun in the Middle East desert, sister and brother were able to sing in the school musical not afraid of a deadly terrorist attack.

And then they are back, with amputated limbs, broken eyesight, after survived the killing land and buried their fellow’s body.  Flowers, hugs, and tears of joy, accompanied with terrible nightmares from mental trauma.

Veterans should be honored and appreciated, not only for the sacrifices they have given, but for the choice they have made.  They could have turn away and earned a different profession, a different life.  But they chose to fight for their people and their country, which is the greatest nation attraLanlacting millions of people to this free land.  They are true soldiers, true patriots, and true American heroes.

”Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” (1) Our veterans did, and we?

(1) John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961