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Marking Veterans Day

Posted 11/10/22

Today is Veterans Day - a time when we pause to honor all of the men and women who have served this great country of ours.  It seems fitting to celebrate our veterans just a few days after a …

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Marking Veterans Day

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Today is Veterans Day - a time when we pause to honor all of the men and women who have served this great country of ours.  It seems fitting to celebrate our veterans just a few days after a very turbulent election season. It’s because of them that all the rest of use enjoy the right to vote and have our voices heard each election season. 

If you opened this past Tuesday’s edition of the Sullivan County Democrat, you likely noticed four pages paying homage to some of our local veterans. These individuals make us proud of our history and proud to call ourselves Americans. 

We can see the generational change in veterans taking place. Many of us grew up with parents or grandparents who were veterans of World War II. Now there are fewer and fewer World War II Veterans each year.  According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, only around 167,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2022. Many of those still alive are in their 90s and soon the living memory of those years will be gone. Veterans who served in Korea, Vietnam and all the conflicts that followed are growing older as well.

There’s entire generations of younger veterans who are making their mark on American society. Veterans of who served in Iraq and Afghanistan over a 20 year period are still in the prime of their lives and looking to make the most of it. 

It’s a nice gesture to thank our veterans for their service, but words are empty if they’re not backed up with action. 

On Saturday, October 22, Action Toward Independence and Vet2Vet partnered with other local organizations to host Sullivan County’s first ever Vet Fest at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds. The event sought to express gratitude to our local veterans and their families while also helping to connect them with support organizations and services that can help them in numerous ways.

This past summer, Congress passed the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (PACT Act). This landmark legislation will continue to improve healthcare access and funding for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during military service.

Taken together, local and national efforts will help us meet our responsibility to take care of veterans in the years and decades to come. 

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