A wide sweep in November …

Food for the body and food for thought

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There's a lot of good reading in the November issue of Fort Worth, Texas magazine, and our attorney asked me to warn you that no matter what you think, the cover is not edible. Although …

The cover story is Cheap Eats, wherein we dispatched intrepid reporter Celestina Blok to find 30 delicious dishes under $10. She succeeded beyond our wildest expectations, and it will take some time to work my way through this list. But I’m going to try.

It is also the 2012 Culinary Awards issue where the readers nominate restaurants and other food venues in a variety of categories from After-Theatre Dining to Wine List. We made, for us, a major change this year in that we opened it to all restaurants in the area. Previously, some of our best eateries were not eligible for recognition because they couldn't meet the requirements of being founded in North Texas or Texas or having a limited number of locations nationwide. But our local restaurants are all grown up now and able to face competition from anywhere, no matter the national reputation or resources. That the list is still predominantly local is testimony to that.

Now, I like food — perhaps too much — so this issue was a treat for me.

But the food articles were not the articles of most interest to me. That's reserved for a story we called Soldiering On. I asked writer Alison Rich to write about programs that serve the men and women of our armed forces to help them deal with the sometimes-unseen aftermath of war and military service.

It's personal, because I am the father of a wounded warrior. Not all injuries occur in combat conditions, and two years ago, my son, Sgt. Huard B. Harral, fell 35 feet from an obstacle at Fort Benning, Ga., while in Air Assault School. Huard is a graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, and has been in the National Guard or the Army Reserves since college days. He's been activated twice, once for airport security duty immediately after 9-11 and for a year in a second activation for a stateside security assignment at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene. He's now assigned to the 7th Psychological Operations Group, an Army Reserve unit. He is in what is called a Community Based Warrior in Transition Unit.

His injuries could have been worse but they were bad enough — a shattered hip. Two surgeries later, he's recovered as much as he's going to recover. One leg is an inch shorter than the other, and many times he's dealing with pain. And he's one of the lucky ones. At right: The hardware removed and replaced in the second surgery. Note the bent screw. (And, no, the doctor did not leave an iPhone in. That's just for comparison.)

For men and women injured in combat, the wounds are often much more grievous. But not all wounds are visible or even combat related, and there are a number of programs around to address both the physical and non-physical aftermath of wartime service.

With an all-volunteer Army, it's easy to not pay much attention unless you personally know someone in the military. There's no draft to focus the attention of those of draftable age. The percentage of the population actually under arms is small. And because we've been fighting in the Middle East on borrowed money, there's not even a tax bite or war bonds to make you aware.

But they are among us — these men and women willing to go into harm's way to, as the oath says, “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

Since World War II, the mission of our military has never been as clear-cut as it was then, but bullets and bombs are no respecters of ambiguity.

When you see people in uniform in the airport, nod to them or tell them you appreciate them.

And be aware that there are those among us dealing with feelings that those of us who have not served cannot understand. But we can support the programs that help them deal with those feelings.

 

---FOO BAR