Some Thoughts on Veterans' Day
It seems like it was a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, that I was training with my National Guard unit at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, getting ready for deployment to the formerly sovereign nation of Iraq. We were there on Thanksgiving, and a Philadelphia attorney named Eric Spevak and Post 126 of the Jewish War Veterans kindly put together a Thanksgiving Day meal for us in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
At that time, Arthur Seltzer was the commander of Post 126, and he spoke for a few minutes. Seltzer was a World War II veteran who had seen action at D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and who had been present at the liberation of the concentration torture and murder camp at Dachau.
During his speech, and afterwards when I met him and shook his hand, Seltzer praised us for our military service. I was struck at the time by a feeling, which has not diminished since, that I was terribly undeserving of this great man’s praise. It was …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to A Ghost in the Machine to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.