November 11. Veteran's Day.

While it's fitting and proper that we as a nation set aside a day each year to honor the American Veteran, if truth be told, we should be honoring Veteran's every day, all year long.

In a historical sense, these brave people have preserved our freedom, our way of life, for well over 200 years. While the people that fought in the Revolutionary War, American Civil War, Two World Wars ...while those brave souls may live only in the dust bin of some faded history and memory, they truly should not be forgotten. If not for those heroes from the farms in South Dakota, the swamps of Louisiana, the deserts of Nevada, the mountains of Colorado, the cities of the east and west coast and every point in between, if not for them, there (in the most literal sense) would not be us.

And in my lifetime, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and countries large and small that host elements that would end what all those long ago veteran's fought (and often died) for...the heroes that trod in those countries, what do we owe them?

More than we can ever pay.

And that is why it is never wrong, whether November 11 or May 10 or December 25 or August 1, to thank a Veteran.

On a personal level, the two veteran's closest to me were my Dad and my Brother. One, a World War Two Veteran, is gone, having joined his fellow heroes somewhere beyond the clouds. The other, a Vietnam Era Air Force Veteran, is retired now and justly proud to know that he served his God and country.

My friend Joe Morrison made me aware of Dolly Parton singing the classic 'Ballad Of The Green Berets'. Originally released in 1966 by the late Sergeant Barry Sadler, it became a worldwide hit in the middle of the Vietnam War. I'd like you to listen to Dolly's version of it, and I've included the original version as well.

And anytime you recognize a Veteran, shake his or her hand, look them in the eye and simply say 'Thank You'.

And from 1966, here's the original version of 'Ballad Of The Green Berets' by Sgt. Barry Sadler.

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