Veterans sacrificed to keep us safe: Let’s help keep it that way

Frequently I’ll run into someone who has read one of my columns and we will start talking about veterans.

Usually we begin the discussion in broad terms and then after a short time, we discuss a specific veteran they knew personally. We talk about the sacrifices that their veteran made and how it affected their lives in some form or fashion. Always, we gravitate to the feeling that the veteran served, so we could preserve our way of life and so we could be safe here at home, while the battles were waged elsewhere. It always brings warmth to my soul when I see pride in their eyes.

I recently discussed Joseph B. Perry Jr., who passed away in 1976. Joseph was from Lowell and served with the U.S. Navy for over 31 years. He served during World War II and was captured at the fall of Corregidor, where he was a then a survivor of the Bataan Death March. He then went on to serve a long naval career as a Chief Warrant Underwater Technician. He served on many submarines, such as the USS Seawolf, the USS Canopus and the USS Rescue. His distinguished career earned him medals such as the WWII Victory Medal, the Silver Star, Purple Heart, the Distinguished Army Unit Citation with two oak leaf clusters among others.

Perry was a hero. He served and survived hell, so that we all could be safe here at home.

In the past I wrote about a

Vietnam veteran, by the name of Robert A. Fairbairn. I call him Bob or Bobby and he was a SSG in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He served four years and experienced some of the war’s fiercest battles including “The Battle of Dak To.” Bobby suffers from severe PTSD, cancer, clustered nerve endings from concussions and countless other ailments, all emanating from his service to our country.

Like Bobby, The Vietnam War took a toll on our country. Despite what the Vietnam War took from Bobby, you’d never meet a prouder American, nor would he ever complain about his sacrifice for his fellow Americans. He fought in the hope that our nation would be safe, while he served abroad.

As a veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm, I served for what we believed was to free the people of Kuwait from the invasion of Iraq and Saddam Hussein. I can tell you that I always believed I was serving to keep my loved ones safe at home. In many conversations I have with veterans these days, we share a common concern for the rapid increase in crime in our American cities.

Additionally, it’s heartbreaking to see an attempt to wash history away with the tearing down of statues, the controlled stories in national media, the elimination of news from social media platforms and the huge push by anarchist and elected officials to defund the police.

It’s shocking to hear elected officials defend anarchists, while we question who will defend our loved ones on our own American streets if the police no longer have resources and support. As election day draws closer, I ask you to consider how far we have come, due to the sacrifices generations of Americans have made while wearing the nation’s uniform.

The election on Nov. 3 is being billed as the most important election of our time. The time when we defend what we have built or put it in the hands of anarchists, socialists and those who only aspire for chaos on our American streets.