![\"325569_10151246341570192_1249129983_o\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/files\/2014\/11\/325569_10151246341570192_1249129983_o1.jpg\" "\\"Troy")
<\/a>Troy Davis, my father, a National Guard Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom<\/p><\/div>\n
As a daughter of a veteran, I can say that it\u2019s no walk in the park having someone you love be sent overseas and not knowing whether you would ever see them again or not.\u00a0 I was in 5th<\/sup> grade when I learned that my father was going to be sent away for two years.<\/p>\n His life, and my family\u2019s lives were put on hold.\u00a0 Nothing would be the same.\u00a0 Every day, from the day he left, to the day he returned, was filled with the same questions.\u00a0 Will I ever see my dad again?\u00a0 When can I talk to Dad?\u00a0 Is Dad okay today?<\/p>\n Christmases and birthdays felt empty.\u00a0 Weekends were lonely. \u00a0Life just wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n The countdown to the day he returned slowly ticked away.<\/p>\n Finally, the day came that I was able to see my dad again.\u00a0 My grandparents, my brother, my mother and I went to Fort McCoy to pick up our hero.\u00a0 We made up just a small part out of crowds of families anxious to see their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children once again.<\/p>\n I remember tears, long hugs, and kisses.\u00a0 Dad was home, and safe\u2026 but life wouldn\u2019t ever be the same.<\/p>\n There will always be two years of my life that were filled with fear, anger, sadness, depression, but now I have respect for what my father has done, pride in him, and a better appreciation for family.\u00a0 I am so grateful that my dad was one of the lucky ones who made it home safely.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t tell by looking at my dad that he ever served in the military, but that doesn\u2019t mean that his service wasn\u2019t important, or that he doesn\u2019t deserve to be thanked.<\/p>\n Veterans Day is a day where we can stop and recognize those who have served, because they really do deserve a thank you for all they have given. It\u2019s a very important day, for very important people.<\/p>\n Nicole Bengston,\u00a0a graduate assistant with the Academic Advising and Exploration Center and a member of the Veteran and Military Servicemember Committee on campus, shared this information about events happening on campus this week in honor of Veterans Day!<\/p>\n November 8-14<\/strong><\/p>\n November 8-20<\/strong><\/p>\n November 10-16<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>November 11, 2014 Veterans Day<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n November 12<\/strong><\/p>\n November 13\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I encourage you to check some of these things out, and remember to thank a Veteran this week!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n They are moms, dads, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, teachers, doctors, farmers. They sell cars.\u00a0 They change diapers.\u00a0 They order coffee. They listen to the radio.\u00a0 They go to college. They are Veterans.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t be able to tell just be… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4783,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1068027,68583,887006],"tags":[68668,420,68666,17820],"class_list":["post-1723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-student-marketing-committee","category-student-org-spotlight","tag-servicemembers","tag-uc","tag-veteran","tag-veterans-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/ucinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.uww.edu\/uc\/things-to-do\/warhawk-alley<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"