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Dear Snow,
The other night SAM and Tonk referred to me as brother. I thought about that a bit. I was thinking about them and their service. I began to think about my time in the Army. I then started thinking about the people who are in the Military today, and all veterans. I have been learning a lot from your little Canteen.
This morning (Tuesday) I woke up and I was thinking about something that happened to me when I was in the Army. I hope that you do not mind if I share.
In 1979 perhaps 1980 I was assigned a trip to Bremerhaven. I had been to B`haven before, but this time I was going solo. It was a 400 mile trip each way. When I got there I had to RON. I knew absolutely nobody there. I was assigned a bed and then I went off to the recreation facility that was there. It was pretty much alive there. Lots of GIs doing what GIs do when they are off duty.
I sat around and after a while I noticed a bookshelf. This shelf had big books. Each book had the name of 1 of the 50 States on its binding. I picked one of them up and perused it. It was a book that was made with blank pages. Only the pages were not blank. People had been writing in the books. I was totally enthralled. I quickly retrieved the book with the name of my state on it (Massachusetts).
Once upon a time Bremerhaven had been the point of departure for Military people who were returning to The USA. Many times people had to wait there for days even for their ship. These books were full of writings by different people who had been waiting there, for their ship. I think that I read almost the entire book. People were from all over the state and were writing to the next people to come along.
I saw writings from people who lived very close to where I was from. Some just rambled; some wrote stories, and even poems. Most however just wrote about their neighborhoods and their families and friends. I think that by the time they were there at that Port they were very anxious to get home.
The one thing that really astonished me however was how old the posts were. I was in my twenties and to me stuff written in the 1950`s was amazingly old. I mean some of the posts were more than 2 decades old.
I wrote in my post “I cannot believe how old some of these messages are!” It really seemed to me that there was a great chasm in time between those other posters and myself. At the time I had not seen America for a couple of years. I sure hope that those books are still there. I hope that some day some one gets to read them all.
My real point in all of this is this. That experience was more than two decades ago! I am now as far removed from our Military Overseas as those earlier posters were to me back then. Thinking about SAM and Tonk`s words really made me think. We are brothers. We have a connection.
Thanks again for the Canteen Snow

Radix, that connection is there no matter where you served, how you served or when you served.

The Minuteman in 1776 has a connection to the Special Forces soldier fighting in Afghanistan.

That connection is everyone who has ever served in the United States Military.

Each of us is a link in the chain that connects that Minuteman of over 200 years ago to the soldier in Afghanistan today.

My 2 cents worth.

Hi Radix,how can I ever thank you for sharing that about Bremerhaven and the books. That is such a beautiful story it has me crying.I love how you wrote about it too.
Thank you Radix, and yes you are all brothers. From the first warrior that ever had to fight for what was right, for honor and country, right up to the troops we have now.

The true Heroes of our country are our Veterans from every war, our troops we have now.......all of you Warrior's.......Brothers.

And you all live in my heart in such a special way it is so hard to explain it.
Thank you so much for this that you wrote. I agree I wonder what happened to those marvelous books. Those messages from the heart.

Thank you Radix