One more way we can say thanks

Many schools and other organizations are going out of their way to honor veterans with special programs for Veterans Day, but no ceremony can truly repay the men and women who risked their lives and put careers and self-interests on hold to help preserve the freedoms we enjoy.

That's true for active duty military, but in some ways, even more so for the Guard and Reserve, who are pulled away from civilian life when duty calls.

And duty is calling more and more. In fact, the U.S. military would be incapable of functioning without citizen soldiers.

Just ask Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Department of Defense agency staffed almost entirely by volunteers which works to smooth relations and foster understanding between members of the National Guard and Reserve and their civilian employers. In Nebraska, that work is done by three paid staff and 82 volunteers.

It's a big job. Since September 2001, 771,968 reserve component men and women have been mobilized, many of them two or even three times, for a year or more each time.

As of Aug. 3, 2010, 103,702 citizen soldiers were on active duty. The total reserve component as of May 31 numbered more than 1.3 million, a hefty 48 percent of America's total military force.

To recognize employers who support their military employees, ESGR presented 14,571 ESGR Patriot awards, with an additional 18,394 through June 30, 2010, recognizing and thanking them for their understanding and help to employees and their families during absences for military training and deployments.

Not all of us have served in the military, but all of us have benefited from what those in the military have done. Picking up the slack while our employees and co-workers are on active duty is just one small way we can say "thanks."