It’s veteran’s day today, which I know because my German phrase-a-day calendar informed me of such and because we didn’t have any mail when we got home.

Regardless of anyone’s attitudes towards particular wars or foreign policy, it’s impossible to be against veterans.  These are people who have fought wars so that the rest of us didn’t have to, people who have given their time, their lives, their general well-being to a greater good.

It’s funny, because I don’t know that many veterans.  Sure, I had a few high school friends who joined the air force or navy, but I don’t really know where they ended up, if they got deployed, if they’re out of the armed forces now.

And I can’t think of older veterans offhand.  Maybe that’s just because I don’t get to know enough of the older generation – parents of friends and such.  Maybe it’s because of the timing of conflicts during my generation.  Iraq war vets are still too young for me to know and older war vets are too old for me to have formed a relationship with so far in life.

So it’s a bit odd.  These veterans are out there, and I appreciate their sacrifices and efforts, but I can’t put a personal face to it.

Is that true of other people my age?  Or is it just that I didn’t get to know the veterans that are inevitably in my life?