Gratitude

I've never written to a message board so please bear with me.  I've been thinking for too long a while how I have needed to express my thanks to those who served for me and my family.  I may only be 39 and may not truely understand all that vets have done for me, but I know my Dad proudly served in the Navy in Korea, and have respected him for his courage to do so.  I know that my cousin died in Vietnam, and my Uncle was a Green Beret.  Aspects of war have affected my in many ways.  I remember my Mom waking my from bed to let me know that the Peace Treaty had just been signed.  She said "the war is finally over" how little we knew about the war and the hell that came home with our vets.  I remember going to the memorial in Washington DC and being totally overwhelmed by its enormity.  I feel so sad when thinking about the Vietnam war and I'm not really very good at putting those feelings into words, but I felt it was importnat that you knew that there are people out here who will never forget what you have done for us.  
Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote 
"I stand by the river where both of us stood, 
And there is but one shadow to darken the flood;
And the path leading to it, where both of used to pass,
Has the step of but one to take dew from the grass,-
  One forlorn since that day."