On today, Veteran's Day, many speeches are made honoring the men and women who bravely served this country in times of conflict. Nearly every municipality in the area planned some kind of veteran's day observances, but the one I was most interested in reading about was the re-dedication of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. For anyone who doesn't know, the Intrepid is an aircraft carrier that's been floating in the Hudson River since the 80s, serving as a museum to depict life aboard an aircraft carrier, and to exhibit some really neat artifacts of military aviation and spaceflight.

As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, the Intrepid was a choice destination, much more entertaining than any one of the city's many art museums. Although I haven't been to the Intrepid in many years, it is stationed along the West Side Drive in Manhattan, which is the route I take when I make my occasional trips down to the city, and it's absence was notable every time I drove that stretch of road for the past two years. I was happy to see it return in early October.

But, the Intrepid also holds a special personal significance fore me. In a family that is proud of its strong tradition of not serving in the military, I am proud that both of my grandfathers served in shipyards during World War II. Grandpa Bernstein was a welder in the naval shipyard in Philadelphia, and while there he worked on parts of the Intrepid. (The Intrepid was constructed at a shipyard in Newport, VA, but some of its components were built elsewhere, including the Philadelphia yard).

Grandpa's war stories were somewhat less typical than other war stories, but of no lesser importance. While bullets did not typically fly at the yards, the pressure to work fast sometimes led to dangerous situations that could imperil life and limb. And without the work of him and thousands of other welders like him, the war effort would have been without necessary support.

In addition, my maternal grandfather, Grandpa Blechman, worked as a pipe fitter in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He died when i was young, and I didn't get the chance to hear as many of his stories, but his work in the yard was also historical significant, as he was fond of telling me about how he fit pipes on the USS Missouri, one of the most storied battleships of World War II.

So, while today we honor the veterans of conflicts, I would humbly suggest that we also remember the men and women who stood behind our soldiers in every conflict. War is hell, and not just for those on the battlefield.