Yes, It's Tuesday. It's Also Something Else.

I don't give much thought to having "served" my country.

In so many ways the time I spent in basic training, advanced individual training and riding around then-West Germany in the back of an armored personnel vehicle was really more valuable as service to myself than serving the greater good.

I developed traits that have served me well in my later career and life, as well as received enough financial support to complete my undergraduate degree.

The events of my enlistment seem more like a movie I remember seeing a long time ago, than anything relevant today. I remember the plot, many of the actors and the location with its superb selection of beers, but what I felt then while experiencing it all has bit by bit faded into the rose-colored past. (Wow, now going 24 years!).

Still, today is one of those days where I'm reminded by others that it was a good decision to enlist in the United States Army. It was the right move to take my chances in that lottery that every solder, sailor and marine enters; the reality is that "the balloon" can go up at any time.

In my day it was Russian and Czech tanks with the real potential to roll through the Fulda Gap, along with a recognition that a tactical nuke or two would be lobbed into our action area to soften things up. (I recall that my life expectancy as a Combat Signaler post-balloon was about 90 seconds.)

Today, my 2008 equivalents are fighting insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq. The former with too little troops and a clear lack of leadership back home; the latter with no exit strategy (via a similar lack of leadership).

I feel for them and on this day hope that they will someday have the opportunity I have, to look back on their service with self-pride and a recognition that they are better off for having served.

Yep. While I don't usually dwell on it and rarely talk about it to others...

I'm proud to say that I am a veteran.