Honors, scars and the Flag

The day dawns upon us again in its camouflage amongst others days blended around it. There will be those who parade around in red, white and blue and yet most still don’t understand, they just do it because others are.
Others can see what we have done and the sacrifices we gave, some of us gave a little and others gave it all. They can see we will defend them in all times at all costs but they cannot see inside of us the scar.
The scars we hold from our buddy who just saved us, staring at us for help long after they have quit breathing. They cannot see the scars we have inside from the nightmares that continue years after the war; that we still fight.
They see the names on the wall but don’t know who they are and see the brilliant white markers where the best of them lay. They come to us and say thanks but inside we know very few see as us in the same sight.
What they don’t realize is each time someone recognizes us, we are telling them thanks for understanding we are not the same person we were when we left. We don’t live the same life anymore as all that was given or taken away.
We not only have lost our buddies but we have lost our homes and families, our friends who one time said “I will always be here for you”. Some of us are alone now to live the best we can as our life stays on a continual sway.
Continuing to wear the uniform and wondering why this war has not stopped. For long after it’s over for them, it continues with us the rest of our lives. Images everywhere remind us there is no going back to being who we were.
For all that we had belongs to someone else now and we are stuck with our faces in the mirror each morning knowing we did what was best; the best we could, and yet wishing we had never gone over there.
We’ve seen the red where our buddies died and white where they now lay. We see the blue each time we are reminded how they sacrificed themselves for us and yet the world says they know our flag?
My brothers and sisters, my last true friends; my comrades, in honors I salute you as I stand in my mirror with my camouflaged eyes and tell those who never served we are tired of returning home stag!