I hope it is not an affront for a non-military person to say…

Let’s be honest… I am soft.

I mean I have a wife and a three year old daughter and the idea of setting sail to go to war where there’s a possibility that I may come home in a body bag is a choice I have never had to face. (Thankfully.)

The mere idea of it sends chills up my spine. And really, I am not sure if I have — or would have ever have had — the stomach to do it. And while I am anti-war and all that other “left-wing, Southern California” stuff, the fact is I have never had to face some of the hard decisions that people and families in the military have had to face.

And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I admire the heck out of them for their sacrifice, guts and convictions.

Forget the politics of it all. (Which is hard because war is politics in so many ways.) Veteran’s Day is a holiday with real meaning for many, many real people.

I mean my own grandfather left a pregnant wife (my grandmother was 7 months along with my father, their first) when he was but 21 years old to go do his duty in WWII.

He slept in foxholes. He ate crappy food. He even did latrine duty cause of his smart-ass mouth. (The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? LOL!!)

But he lived. (He’ll be 89 on X-Mas day.) Yet I never really understood what any of that meant until I became a dad myself.

Leave my pregnant wife to cross the world and go spend my days getting shot at not knowing if I’ll ever return to see my child or spouse? Uhm…

Veteran’s Day is the day to salute thousands and thousands of people who have made a sacrifice that is, if you think about it, almost mind-numbing in the scope of what it asks and potentially can take.

Hats off to the veterans and their families. Though a dude like me may not often seem to reflect it often enough, I admire the heck of out you.

And I hope it is not an affront for a non-military person to say that I really do salute you.