Casualties of War

Being Veterans Day and thinking about my father who passed away on May 19th of this year has really made me think about the phrase “casualties of war.” Most of us consider casualties of war as those who are unable to walk away from the battlefield on their own or not able to walk away at all. In reality there are so many more that walk away “seemingly” unscathed but forever scarred.

My father, Hubert L. Reece, Sr. walked away from the Vietnam “Conflict” with no apparent scars. As the years progressed he would experience fainting spells, high blood pressure, diabetes which led to his leg being amputated, intestinal cancer, stroke and congestive heart failure. Many of these ailments were attributed to what he was exposed to while in Vietnam. He was a soldier to the very end. On May 19, 2014 at approximately 7:15am, while surround by family his heart took its last beat. It is a moment that I will never forget. The unseen scars of the Vietnam War made my dad a casualty of war.

There are so many more just like my dad. Soldiers who have come home thinking they are ok when they are really not. Today I pray for all of these soldiers. I pray that they find the medical attention that they need. I pray that God will cover their families as they walk this long hard journey of discovering what it means to be a casualty of war; be certain that it is a journey.

To all of our veterans, thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice. It means the world to me. Freedom is not free. Thank you for paying the price that I was so unwilling to pay.