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Al Jazeera America
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — About 20 miles southwest of Jacksonville's center, buzzards circle over pine forests. Below, rows of potted blueberry plants stand ready for winter. Underneath rain covers, datil pepper plants wait out storms. It's so quiet, the only sounds are the wind and the occasional small tractor rumbling by."It's peaceful. It's quiet out here," Shaun Valdivia says in a low voice. "You hear the birds. It's easy on the brain, for you to think about or not think about certain things."
The quiet matters to Valdivia. The soft-spoken Marine vet with a buzz cut was so reclusive after his medical discharge from the military that he barely left his house.
"I wasn't social at all. I didn't want to see any of my old friends. I had every symptom you could have for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," he recalls. "I didn't know it at the time until I went and got it checked out by the doctors."
NPR
On April 18, 1942, in response to the Japanese attack the previous December on Pearl Harbor, 80 men in 16 B-25 bombers took off on a secret mission to bomb Japan. Led by James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, they became known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.On Saturday, three of the four remaining Raiders met for what is likely to be the last time at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Waving to the crowd were former Lt. Col. Richard Cole, 98, of Texas, former Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, 93, of Washington state and 92-year-old former Staff Sgt. David Thatcher of Montana. Former Lt. Col. Robert Hite, 93 and a fellow Raider, could not make the trip from his home in Tennessee.
After the motorcade pulled into Memorial Park, Cole addressed the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, once again we meet in this memorial park to reflect on the mission more than 71 years ago. We are grateful we had the opportunity to serve."
New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama pledged Monday that Americans “will never forget” the sacrifices made by the country’s military veterans, and promised that his administration would continue pushing for money to support the men and women home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Speaking at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day after placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, Mr. Obama declared that the nation’s most recent “chapter of war is coming to an end.” But he said that Americans must not let the service of the military fade from memory.
“By this time next year, the transition to Afghan-led security will be nearly complete,” he said. “The longest war in American history will end.”
But he said that “there’s a risk that the devoted service of our veterans could fade from the forefront of our minds,” and added that “our time of service to our newest veterans has just begun.”
Los Angeles Times
Veterans Day will be bit different for Richard Overton. The man believed to be the nation's oldest living veteran spends most days smoking cigars and enjoying his whiskey. But today? He's spending Veterans Day with President Obama.Overton, 107, enjoys up to 12 cigars a day and likes to enjoy his morning coffee with a little whiskey, a beverage he credits in part with his long, healthy life. The Austin, Texas, resident still drives, walks without a cane and regularly attends church. He said he was taken aback when he got the invitation to the White House.
"The president wants me to come to him!" Overton said. "I'm surprised he called me." On the day's agenda: Breakfast with the president and vice president, and then attending the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Man of-the-sea Hans Skalagard soon will turn 90, no thanks to Adolf Hitler's navy.All through World War II, German submarines tried their best to blow up and sink the ships on which Skalagard criss-crossed the Atlantic, delivering munitions, fuel, equipment and supplies essential to the Allies' efforts.
“I made 33 crossings,” said the Petaluman and career seaman known internationally for his lifelike, historically true paintings of sailing ships.
Three times, Skalagard went into the brine as a torpedoed cargo ship headed to the bottom. More fortunate than the shipmates killed or maimed, he once bobbed, nearly starved and alternately shivered and baked in the south Atlantic for 21 days before he was rescued.
Skalagard is proud of what he did to help sustain besieged Britain and to help her and her allies win the war. But all these years later, something bitter sticks in the old salt's craw.