Men of Honor - Military Veteran
Michalis 'BIG Mike' Kotzakolios

The Military veteran is one of those valiant men who have tons of experience in real time combat situations and wars, in numerous instances, under different conditions and terrains, in various parts of the globe. There are some aspects in life that one can only be understood with real-time experience. It cannot be taught by theory or pushed into one’s system in any other way. In war scenarios, such real time experience holds immense value and that is exactly where a military veteran plays an important role in strategy planning and other attack and defensive tactics. No wonder every military school or academy has thoroughly experienced military veterans manning administrative and teaching posts.

Imagine in this context the Gulf war (given current affairs you may feel at home imagining this scenario, something made familiar through television and print media) with planning going on in a theoretical level; it is finally the valuable input from the military veteran on the state of affairs that may decide the implementation.

There is some experience that only knowledge of the local terrain can impart. For example, a British military veteran introduced the use of a “goolie chit” to the Americans during the Gulf war. The British, who were involved in combat with the Arabs for centuries, had acquired this knowledge from a military veteran. On the whole the goolie chit contained a few pieces of gold and a note written in Arabic which said “Bedouin (a desert nomad) this person works for the Sons of Naji (Arabic reference for British or Americans) and if you return him safely preferably with his body parts intact you will get many more gold pieces”. This kind of insurance document proved invaluable in saving many lives, in case the pilot got shot down, as it promised a generous reward to anyone who helped them return to friendly territory.

To make an air strike or to advance by foot on enemy soil, one can go by maps, photographs, and in today’s world of advanced communication, by live data transfer and information exchange via satellites. But there are many ground realties that hamper the progress in real-time instances and affect how effectively the military could gauge the offense - both physical and natural. Only an experienced soldier, a military veteran, can draw a realistic enough picture of the whole scenario. And that exactly is the role of a military veteran in any armed forces.

What we have seen here is the life of a military veteran who is still in service. But there is another class of military veteran who is retired from active service owing either to having served a considerable number of years in the military or due to serious injury in the line of duty..

To conclude, a military veteran is the hero who fought and defended his country against its foes. For the military, he is an invaluable asset to the tactical scheme of things. It is the duty of the country and its citizens to take care of its veterans – as a reward for their great sacrifices and unflinching commitment to their country.

BIG Mike is a well known author, developer and Adsense expert as well as the owner of Niche Maniacs - a unique Adsense Marketing System designed to build long-term passive income streams from Adsense, YPN, Chitika and other PPC services.