Pastor Mike Nodland of the Christian Fellowship Church in Vining, IA.

November 11 is Veterans Day!! Thank you, Veterans, for your service to our country! We salute you and honor you, for you are a hero in every sense of the word, and we are proud of you!

We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. In college, I got caught up in a crowd protesting the Vietnam War in the ’60’s, just because it was the thing to do! Our troops came back to no ticker tape parades, booed, criticized and ignored. But one by one, as they came home, I had a change of heart.

One whom I worked with, had been on a patrol at night in Vietnam. He held a compass and was the guide through the darkness. He was also the one to trip over a booby trap and was sent sailing through the air into the thicket. Medevacked to a copter, then to a hospital, he nearly lost his leg. The medical team preparing him for emergency surgery, pried open his tight grip to discover the compass still in his hand and its imprint embedded on his palm. He served unsung, as did so many others.

Veterans…and all of you Vietnam Vets…thank you, thank you, thank you! God bless you, every one of you! We’re proud of you!