Whenever someone learns that I served in the Navy, the response is often, “Thank you for your service.”

 

I am always grateful for the kindness behind those words, although I admit they can make me a little uncomfortable. I know many veterans and active-duty service members who feel the same way. We did not serve for recognition, and many of us received as much from military life as we gave.

 

These days, I have learned to respond, “Thank you for your support.”

 

That exchange says something important about Veterans Day. It is a day to honor those who wore our nation’s uniform, but it is also a reminder that service has never been carried by veterans alone.

 

I joined the Navy in 1988, right out of high school. I wanted to see the world and did not believe I was ready for college. That decision became a 36-year journey filled with remarkable experiences, lifelong friendships, combat deployments, and opportunities I could never have imagined. Like any long career, it included many highs and a few lows, but overall, it was an extraordinarily rewarding experience.

 

Of all the opportunities the Navy gave me, the greatest was the privilege to serve.

 

People enter the military for many reasons, but most eventually discover that service is not about themselves. It is about the person beside them, the mission before them, and the country behind them. We learn to rely on one another and to live by values such as honor, courage, and commitment.

 

We also learn that no one serves alone.

 

Before our wedding, my wife, Wren, had the reference Ruth 1:16b placed inside my wedding ring: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” She has lived those words. During our first 20 years of marriage, we moved 15 times. Wren and our sons, Pate and Hampton, shared the deployments, separations, uncertainty, missed occasions, and constant change that accompany military life.

 

Whatever I accomplished, they helped make possible. Their story is shared by military families across America, and they deserve our appreciation too.

 

Military service also taught me the strength of unity. Our armed forces bring together Americans from every background and point of view. We do not have to agree on everything to serve a purpose greater than ourselves. E Pluribus Unum - “Out of many, one” - remains a powerful description of what our country can be.

 

Our responsibility to veterans does not end when their uniforms come off. Veterans are trained to face fear, persevere, and never quit; but strength does not mean struggling alone. Sometimes the effects of service remain long after the final deployment.

 

Here in Walton County, Veterans Lodge in DeFuniak Springs represents support put into action: a place envisioned for veterans and their families to pursue healing, rediscover purpose, and find renewed hope. It reminds us that appreciation is most meaningful when it leads us to stand beside one another.

 

This Veterans Day, please continue saying, “Thank you for your service.” Those words matter.

 

And if a veteran responds, “Thank you for your support,” know that those words are sincere, too. We are grateful to have served a country, and a community, that remembers, honors, and walks beside its veterans.