Born on the Fourth of July...

Happy Fourth of July to everyone ~ all comers to this site!
I can't forget to include that, as I am the wife of a Marine (hon. disch. 2/72)...a Viet Nam vet...on medical disability due to Agent Orange exposure.
Since the beginning of this nation, we have always been the 'good guys' going wherever we were needed to 'save the day' ~ and we did exactly that.
No matter the cost to our person, we did as we were told. We had a deep, abiding love for our country which was unparalleled in all the anals of history. Whether we are the ones who did the fighting, guarding and protecting, or we stayed stateside and prayed...we were regarded as the saviors of democracy.
Even tho' the war in the 'Nam was never won, nor lost, we look at it as a part of our past which had a great effect on the lives we live today. Men and women came home changed forever. People like my husband are now disabled, due to their exposure to this chemical, and through no fault of their own, doing what they were told to do.
Yes, our freedom comes at a great price.
It did over two hundred years ago, when our Founding Fathers first put their names to the Declaration of Independence. We fought the British with a conviction never before seen, upstarts to our king.
One hundred years later, our people were so at odds over differing lifestyles and the threat of division that we felt compelled to go to war once more, proving nothing except that all people (of any color) deserve the same freedoms for which we had fought so hard earlier, and also the fact that we are a nation ~ ONE NATION ~ had we forgotten this already?!?
The two World Wars were more of the same, on a much grander scale ~ and once, no twice, again, we came to the rescue of the world...sadly after the deaths of so many...and never forgetting what Our Lady had said at Fatima, 'Most of the people killed in the war (WWI) go to hell, as there is no one to pray for them.' She so lamented their sins of the flesh!!
These wars we wage ~ at the cost of our immortal souls...Man is such a fickle creature, who, at best, uses his whims to turn the tide to his own favor.
Yes, his own favor...but is it for his own good? Sometimes I wonder...
The exposures of all those men and women to Agent Orange...how many? Was it worth it?
There is no doubt that it did what it was supposed to do; it cleared the brush, preventing how many sneak attacks of the Viet Cong, making it possible for our soldiers to be on guard so they could defend themselves. But I doubt whether they realized at that time the even sneakier attack that was being foisted upon them by this equally insidious villain ~ Agent Orange.
My husband does not regret being a Marine, sent over by his commander to fight in the war. He is proud of his record there, and he should be! The Marines are the Few, the Proud...
And I, for myself, am proud to be the wife of a Viet Nam Vet.
I can pray for everyone who goes to war: Desert Storm, the War on Terrorism. And this I will do, until the day I myself am called Home by my Creator. My Rosary, my beloved Beads, will be offered up for the souls of all those who find themselves forced to follow their orders, whether or not they are allowed to know beforehand the underlying threat of disability.
I only hope and pray that someday, before we find it to be too late, we will come to realize that, for the better or worse of our country and our freedom, we had the solution in the palm of our hands the whole time.
Semper fi...