Remembrance day for me.

[Odd Socks]

Remembrance day. Another year, and the list of those I knew, remember, and honour, gets longer. It's their stories and loss that stings as I am the last man standing from my team and that feels wrong. I have been told that is survivors guilt. Aka "Why them and not me?"

My lovely wife will then shake me hard (as always) and say, "Don't you dare"!
Then she says, "Nobody forgets if just one remembers".
And that resets my clock. Rest easy brothers and sisters.

 

[IntegrateMePlease]

That sounds incredibly hard to carry, OS. Thank you for the sacrifices you’ve made for your country, your brothers and sisters, and your family. Your wife's words are powerful: "Nobody forgets if just one remembers". Thank you for keeping their memory alive.

I don’t have combat PTSD, so I can’t pretend to understand, but I can listen. I hope you’ve managed to eat and drink something today.

 

[PlainJane]

Mod Note:
@Odd Socks, I removed the trigger/emotion warning as we don't use them here. As a site for PTSD, nearly everything has the potential to trigger someone. Thanks!

 

[LuckiLee]

Sorry you're struggling. October starts the anniversary season for my combat veteran. The survivors guilt hits hard and can bring my man to his knees.

I never know how to support so I just listen. I'll keep your wife's words close for when we need them.

Sorry for your loss.

&

 

[Odd Socks]

Mod Note:
@Odd Socks, I removed the trigger/emotion warning as we don't use them here. As a site for PTSD, nearly everything has the potential to trigger someone. Thanks!

Thank you for the feedback. I'm always cautious, not wanting to upset others.

 

[Survivor3]

Hi @Odd Socks , just wanted to say thankyou you and yours for your service.

 

[Friday]

Veterans Day, for me… when I’m doing wellest… usually means a badass trip/adventure for a couple weeks. Snowboarding, surfing, sexcapades, horseback riding, something super physical, with a hot tub under starlight, & a morning swim, & good music, & good food, & good people.

^^^ It was completely accidental for yeeeeeeears, and I was totally unaware that I had 2 “annual holidays” until an employer got all grumpy with me, and wanted to get my 2 holidays on the books early.
- WTF are you talking about?!? I don’t have annual holidays! Besides, I’m contract.
- You NEVER WORK, never answer the phone/email, for a couple weeks in November & March. Any other time? 24/7 you’re immediately there, reliable, reach-able-FFS. You vanish off the face of the damn earth though on these dates. So can you submit the damn paperwork, already???
- If you already know the dates, you submit it.

Yeah. So, since then? I almost always FORGET I check the f*ck out twice a year (I check out on purpose 4-6 times a year; during school breaks, etc…. But I’ve been “spontaneously” deciding to get the hell outta dodge twice a year for over 20 years, now. I don’t know if I’d have noticed, if it hadn’t been point out to me. And I still forget in advance. Delightful spontaneity -vs- total lack of planning for the predictable??? Eh. It’s one of those. Usually. When I’m doing well.

Veterans Day, for me… when I’m doing badly… I’m usually at home, alone, and very drunk. Although I HAVENT actually gone out picking a nice friendly bar fight in ages, no matter how good of an idea it seems at the time.


^^^^
NEITHER of these are helped by it being the USMC Birthday on 10NOV1775.

10th you celebrate.
11th you mourn.
Shrug.

On the upside? I somehow find it a wicked good idea to do things, and watch films, that you otherwise couldn’t pay me to do, those first 2 weeks in November. I’ve been meaning to watch FURY & Inglorious Bastards for yeeeeeeeears. Finally did it this year.

 

[Paladin_141]

I have attended Remembrance Sunday events for the last 30 years without missing a single one. From my first parade as a cadet, then with the army, the navy and the coastguard then on my own, then watching my son parade with the scouts.

I will miss this year, but I'm sure the lads would understand.

 

[Odd Socks]

I have attended Remembrance Sunday events for the last 30 years without missing a single one. From my first parade as a cadet, then with the army, the navy and the coastguard then on my own, then watching my son parade with the scouts.

I will miss this year, but I'm sure the lads would understand.

That's the nice bit. YOU KNOW the lads will understand.