I am the daughter, daughter in law, sister in law, cousin, granddaughter, niece, great niece, great granddaughter, great great... and so and so forth of veterans.  Not to mention my friends, too.  Military roots run long, deep, wide in my family.  I did not serve.  I had a chance at an academy, but I passed.  It wasn't for me.  Even so, I still feel a very deep connection to the US Armed Forces.  My dad was USAF.  I carry his dog tags.  His dress hat sits in a place of honor in my home.  My kids stand still with their hands over their hearts at every National Anthem.  We ALL remove our hats.  Girls, too.  We wanted equal rights, we got 'em.  So, I take off my hat.  Booh does, too.  My heart breaks tonight.

Again, this was taken, roughly, a year ago.  My heart was heavy with emotion while we visited the war memorials.  So thankful, but so devastated.  Tonight, I am having the same feelings swirling around.  God bless and God speed those involved in the tragedy in Tennessee.  My prayers and my thoughts are with the families, the friends of the soldiers lost and with the USMC and all the men and women who serve our country.

Bless our veterans

Taken with Nikon D600, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.  36mm, f/2.8, 1/4000sec, ISO 200.  Edited in Adobe Photoshop with Totally Rad's Rad Lab and some tricks of my own, too.