My first meaningful Veteran's Day

As you probably know, today was Veteran's Day. I've always known Veteran's Day as a day when we have no school and I can sleep late. Today I learned that it's so much more.

All of us went to the Arlington National Cemetery, where there are more than 300,000 people buried who served our country. It's an amazing place. At the Cemetery, we got to meet with General Nicholson, who has served in the military all over the world for 29 years. He is now the Director of the Afghanistan/Pakistan Cell in the Joint Staff, where he advises Congress and the President about issues regarding Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is being deployed back to Afghanistan next year.

On the news, you always see  "27 killed in car bomb" or something like that. General Nicholson put actual people and actual stories to those names. He brought us to the graves of 3 people who died under his command, ranging from 19-41 years old. One was a man who was killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) 3 weeks after his wife had their third child at home. He never got to meet his daughter. Another one that stuck out to meet was 19 year old Justin, who was killed in Afghanistan only a few years ago. General Nicholson told us what a great guy he was, always helping out others. We had the honor of meeting his Mom, who, by fate, was visiting Justin's tombstone. She was such a nice and inspirational woman, who talked all about her son. Meeting her really put a face to the numbers for me.

After we visited 3 men who have died, we got to ask General Nicholson questions. About anything really. One of the questions I asked him was something like, "Why did you decide to join the military? Why do you fight?"
 He explained how he got into the military, and about the time when he joined during the Cold War. He fought because he believed that communism was completely against all the freedom that we value as Americans. What kept him in the military was 9/11. He feels a need to defend our country against those who want to kill us. His office in the pentagon was destroyed that day, and it was really interesting that the plane that hit the pentagon flew right over where we were standing, section 60.

I learned so much from all the questions that he answered and all that he said. He thinks that we can win in Afghanistan, just give it 3-5 more years. He said that he could not morally put other peoples' lives at stake if he did not think that they could win. He talked about how he copes with the deaths of so many, how they view the enemy, and what they do.

He really was not what I expected. He was a sympathetic and caring guy, not like the macho tough guy I had envisioned. Not to say he's not tough though, he could probably beat me up with his pinkie. Meeting with him was such an honor.

After we met with him, we all kind of went off in Arlington Cemetery for an hour. My friend Rosa and I stuck together and went back to see Justin's Mom, who we had briefly met earlier. She visits Justin's gravesite every weekend, and has built strong relationships with families of soldiers buried close to Justin who also have been through a similar situation. You can really feel the love between all of the people there, they all can really relate to eachother on a level that most people can't. It's really powerful. We talked with her for about 15 minutes about how it's so hard to put a face to the numbers when the news doesn't identify people, just numbers and we also talked about how she's doing now. She is definitely a trooper, and I really admire her for that. There were times where I got teary-eyed, but I really loved talking to her. Right before we said goodbye to her I told her that "To me, she is now the face to the numbers," or something like that. She seemed to really like that.

As we were walking away, we turned around and saw her talking with Vice President Joe Biden....all I can say is wow. We sneakily kept walking past to see Biden, and we literally were 5 feet away from him, but it really wasn't the time to say something to him because he was paying his respects with the families. But being that close to him was a huge shell shock. He looks alot different in person, and he had barely any bodyguards which was surprising. He was just like a regular guy paying his respects.

Before we left we went to the Lee house which was really cool too.

So basically the whole day was amazing. it was extremely powerful and meaningful, and I don't think that I'll ever forget it.



General Nicholson's full bio here:
As the Director of the Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the Joint Staff, BG Nicholson is responsible to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  for synchronizing the military activities of the Services and Combatant Commands in the implementation of our national policy in the region.  The PACC supports the decision making process of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in his provision of best military advice to the Secretary of Defense and the President. BG Nicholson represents the Joint Staff to our international, interagency and non-governmental partners on matters of policy formulation, implementation and strategic communications.  The PACC runs the Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands program in which we recruit talented officers and non-commissioned officers to learn local languages (Dari, Pashto, Urdu) and develop deeper cultural understanding prior to service in key commands in and out of theater.  

He served as the Deputy Commanding General for Regional Command (RC) South, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
from November 2008 thru September 2009.  He was principally responsible for the governance, development and civil-military
integration aspects of ISAF’s campaign plan as well as planning and executing the introduction and employment of over 20,000 US 
forces into RC South in 2009.   
From July 2007 to October 2008, he served as Deputy Director for Operations, National Military Command Center, J3 Operations 
Directorate on the Joint Staff where he supervised the principal, national-level, military command and control facility which provides 
worldwide monitoring, crisis response and strategic watch for the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff.    
From July 2004 to June 2007, BG Nicholson commanded the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (Task Force Spartan) of the 10th Mountain 
Division from Fort Drum, New York.  After building and training the unit, they deployed to eastern Afghanistan from February 2006 to 
June 2007, where Task Force Spartan’s nine battalions and eight Provincial Reconstruction Teams conducted counter-insurgency 
operations as part of ISAF’s Regional Command East.  Task Force Spartan was responsible for 10 provinces, 570 miles of border with 
Pakistan and 7 million Afghans.  In concert with joint, interagency and multinational partners, they successfully promoted governance, 
economic development and reconstruction within secure environments created by combined operations with local governments, the
201st and 203rd Afghan National Army Corps, the Afghan National Police, and tribal leaders.  The Task Force pioneered a successful 
tactical level COIN methodology based on persistent presence with key segments of the population and improved civil-military integration.  
BG Nicholson was commissioned into the infantry in 1982 upon graduation from West Point.  He has lead soldiers in Airborne, Ranger, 
Mechanized, Stryker and Light Infantry units in five different Infantry Divisions and the 75th Ranger Regiment in the United States and 
Europe.  His other assignments include service on the immediate staffs of the Secretary of the Army; Chief of Staff of the Army; 
Commanding General, Peace Stabilization Force, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Commanding General, US Army Europe and at the George C. 
Marshall European Center for Security Studies. 

BG Nicholson has bachelors’ degrees from the United States Military Academy and Georgetown University, a master’s degree
in Military Art and Science from the School for Advanced Military Studies and a master’s degree in National Security Studies from
the National Defense University.

His awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal for Valor, Bronze Star
Medal, NATO Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge (2d Award), Expert Infantryman’s Badge, Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Badge
and Pathfinder Badge.