'Thank you for your service'

Every November, the country takes a day to formally recognize the commitment, courage and sacrifice of its military veterans -- but while veterans are often too humble to say so, they're just as deserving of thanks any other day of the year. Some people take the time to make sure veterans feel appreciated year-round.

The sentiment was illustrated excellently in October, when a handshake in a Cape Girardeau Burger King restaurant became an item of national attention after a post on Facebook went viral.

Ninety-four-year old Kenneth Haas was just trying to use a coupon for his meal when the teen behind the counter, Divante Nicholson, came out to shake his hand, instead. The encounter was witnessed by another customer, who was touched and posted a picture of the two.

"She said she was going to put it on Facebook, but I didn't hardly know what Facebook was," Haas said.

He said that in the weeks that followed, friends and relatives started contacting him from places as far as Colorado and Washington state.

Haas said it's not unheard-of for a stranger to pay for his breakfast or extend some other kind gesture in recognition of his service, but he added that's not the reason he wears his cap and jacket.

"I wear my cap and my jacket all the time," he said. "I wear it because it's a part of me. I don't just wear it on Sundays out to eat -- it means a lot more than that."

One other moment sticks out in his mind, as well. A couple months ago, as Haas walked into Saint Francis Medical Center for an appointment, a young boy came out of a play area and walked straight up to him.

"Not with his parents, just by himself, he came out of the playroom and thanked me for my service," Haas recalled.

To Haas, Nicholson's brief handshake affirmed in its own little way the years of memories that he still recalls so well. It reminds him it was all worth it -- the initiative he showed in 1942, enlisting before his draft number came up; his volunteering for Patrol Boat assignment against Navy conventional wisdom ("They say never to volunteer," he explained); and even his closest brush with death, staring at the open cockpit of a Japanese bomber as it strafed his squad -- it was all worth it.

Kenneth Haas and Divante Nicholson met at a Burger King restaurant in Cape Girardeau. Customer Tina Readus snapped a photo of the two, which then went viral on social media. (Photo courtesy of Tina Readus)

Nicholson's handshake makes Haas grateful for the gratitude, and offers him a sort of ease of mind.

And because he knows how important that gratitude is to him personally, he shows his own thankfulness to other veterans as well. Haas' face is well-known around the Cape Girardeau Veterans Home, where he visits twice or three times a week.

"I do it because of my *... yep," he said, trailing off to think about the men he served with. "People call me a hero, but I'm not the hero. The heroes are the ones underneath those crosses out there."

And thanking veterans isn't just an American thing, either. It's a profoundly human gesture.

Haas recalled one time during the war, when his patrol boat sank a Japanese barge during the night. One of the barge's crewman survived, and one of Haas' crewmates found the man to have been carrying a letter. Years later, the crewmate had the note translated and he showed Haas what it was: a letter from the people in the dying man's hometown, printed neatly on thin rice paper, thanking him for his service.

It seemed a bit ironic, he admits, but says he understands how the man must have cherished that note, just as Haas now appreciates the occasional handshake.

And it isn't always interpersonal -- plenty of businesses and restaurants around town offer military discounts, and the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri is starting a new program on Veterans Day called Buddies for the Brave, which will help veterans adopt pets for lower adoption fees.

"You really don't know how much those five or six words mean to a veteran," Haas said. "Thank you for your service -- I always tell people they don't have to do more than that, you don't have to [pay for breakfast], but I'm not going to stop wearing my hat."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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