Dear Vietnam Veteran,

I want to start by saying, thank you for your service and welcome home. I can never fully understand the hardships you must have faced overseas. By watching the Honor Flight movie I realized I have never gotten the chance to properly thank a veteran and I would like to thank you for your courage, bravery and more than anything I would like to thank you for fighting for my freedom.

My name is Catherine and I am a senior in high school, currently on my way to my “next step” and I cannot even begin to imagine how it would feel to get drafted into the military and sent off to a different country. Though your reasons for signing up may be different from those soldiers around you, I understand you felt you had a duty to your country and your family to fulfill and for that I am forever in your debt.

I got the chance to watch a TEDTalk video on how to talk to veterans from a veteran’s point of view and from that I learned that many veterans may not feel appreciated or cared for when they come back home. So, I want to take the time to say “thank you,” and “welcome home.” To imagine going overseas and sent off to a foreign land to do something that I only ever see in movies is indescribable and I cannot imagine how it would feel to do so.

I am truly grateful for your service and may not ever get the chance to fully understand what you went through but I know that without the help from you and the millions of other soldiers out there, the country I live in would be completely different. For that I cannot thank you enough for your courage, bravery, and for fighting for my freedom.

Thank you for your service,

Catherine