Today, I honor one former member of the Mets above and beyond all others. My father. He was a vendor the first year Shea Stadium was opened. A few short years later he would be drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.

After basic training, he was dropped right into a battle, a battle that would claim the life of many men. One of these men was someone he knew from basic training.  I still remember my Dad telling this story just crying on the battlefield. This was just his first day in Vietnam.

During the war he would be exposed to Agent Orange, fall ill with Dengue Fevrr, and be exposed to Tuberculosis. He would see many more people die. This wasn’t even the worst of what would happen to him overseas.

He had to give the order. He was told who to designate who was to go up front.  There was a suspicion the field was booby trapped. My father was supposed to be further back, but he stayed closer to the petrified soldier. It put my father in harm’s way as that petrified soldier tripped a booby trap.

The shrapnel is still in my father’s arms and legs. He has deep scars in his arms and legs.  As he jokes, he has too different hands. The damaged muscles and nerve endings will do that.  One leg is shorter than the other. As he once put it to me, he’s in pain everyday of his life. He’s one of several Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

It was a miracle he even survived. He has a severed artery in his leg. He got “lucky” that his artery was contracting at the time of impact. If it wasn’t, he would’ve bled out before the medical helicopters could arrive. It was a miracle he even survived. Making it even more of a miracle I’m here today.

After he got out of the army, he went back to school. He started a career, got married, and raised a family. He put two kids through school, and he is now a grandparent to a child of the same name. Whenever I see that final scene in “Saving Private Ryan,” I think of my Dad. He really did earn his second chance at life even if he still carries the physical and emotional scars from what seems like a lifetime ago.

My Dad never did forget the men he served with. He still keeps in contact by phone and at the reunions. It was at a reunion that he had a moment to say thank you to someone my family owes everything to. It was the medic who kept my Dad alive until he could receive the life saving emergency surgery he needed.

My Dad and mother wanted to take him and his wife to dinner. They went to dinner, but the medic and his wife wouldn’t let my Dad pick up the check, after all my Dad flew out all that way to attend a reunion in the medic’s backyard. I joke with my Dad he now owes this man his life and a meal. My Dad laughs, but he’s quick to remind me after all this man has done for all of us the last thing he wanted to do was to insult the man.

My Dad is now retired. It is no wonder that he volunteers his time at the VA. He’s doing his part to honor and support our veterans as we all should.

So today, if you see or know a veteran, please reach out to them and thank them for their service. If not for each and every one if them, we would not be where we are today enjoying the lives we lead. I know for sure I wouldn’t.

Editor’s Note: this was originally published last year on Veteran’s Day.