Happy Veteran's Day from Dark Future Games!

Old School here to share a few things with you all for Veterans Day. The first is the photo above, a memorial to the Marines of 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines Lima Co., a command who lost more of their brothers in Iraq than any other Marine unit in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Rather than know them or remember them for that, it is important to understand that it is through the efforts of individuals like them that areas like Ramadi, Hit and Haditha reached a relative state of peace and for that, those of us who patroled those streets in the years to come would be forever grateful.
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The next thing I would like to share is a hearty thank you to any US veteran out there who reads this post. I know Veterans Day is an American holiday, but as a US Marine, I have been in the same mud with British, Austrailian, Canadian, South Korean, Thai, Japanese, Lithuanian and Iraqi servicemembers and have never been dissapointed in their performance and diligence. So, wherever you are, whatever flag you served under thank you for your service as well. It is on the backs of warriors that civilisation flourishes.

The final thing is a poem I like to read ever year around this time; If by Rudyard Kipling:

If




If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;



If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;



If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";



If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!




Happy Veterans Day to all of you from DFG! Wherever you are today, veterans, I hope you find some measure of peace on this day.