06/12/2026
Flag Day is quickly approaching.
Many of us will see service members and veterans in uniform, wearing a hat, a T-shirt, or a jacket that quietly says, "I served." And many people will offer the familiar words:
"Thank you for your service."
Today, those words sit a little differently.
Because behind that uniform are veterans lying in hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and hospice beds—fighting for their lives because of sacrifices they made for something greater than themselves. Sacrifices they never imagined would follow them home.
Cancers linked to exposures.
Autoimmune diseases.
Spinal injuries.
Hearing loss.
Burns.
Shrapnel wounds.
Traumatic brain injuries.
PTSD.
Chronic pain that never lets up.
Some spend days in hospitals.
Some spend weeks.
Some spend months.
Their families fight alongside them—spouses trying to hold marriages together, children learning to navigate a parent changed by war, caregivers exhausted and overwhelmed. Some doctors truly care. Some understand. Some don't. There are tests, medications, appeals, wrong medications, no medications, and pain so debilitating it steals pieces of who they once were.
I think about the veteran on hospice after the VA had nothing left to offer. The one who sold everything he had, watched the life he built disappear, and was left to die alone.
I think about the veteran who served honorably but made one mistake. Because of the discharge attached to that mistake, they were stripped of veteran status and denied the help they desperately needed—even when the very thing that led them there began during military service.
I think about veterans carrying horrific trauma long after the uniform came off, battling demons and coping the only ways they know how.
And I think about how easily we say, "Thank you for your service," while walking past the veteran collecting donations for poppies, declining to give a couple of dollars, or deciding that helping provide a weighted blanket, comfort item, or basic support to help someone make it through another night isn't worth it.
Gratitude is important.
But gratitude without action can feel hollow.
This Flag Day, don't just thank a veteran.
See them.
Listen to them.
Check on them.
Support the organizations doing the work.
Buy the poppy.
Donate the few dollars.
Advocate when the system fails them.
Because honoring service isn't just about remembering what they gave.
It's about standing beside them in the battles that never truly ended when they came home.
🇺🇸❤️ Some people may disagree with the discomfort in this message, but sometimes love of country means being honest about how we care for those we asked to carry its burdens. Flag Day isn't just about the flag itself—it's about what we're willing to do for the people who served beneath it.
