As a dentist, Memorial Day often causes me to reflect upon the many veterans I've known as patients over the years. Regardless of viewpoints on the war, they all paid a high price for their experience. The veteran "patients" that didn't make it home paid the ultimate price. For many that make it home, they are condemned to carry scars for life, both mental and physical. Graduating from Loma Linda in the 70s, we all learned IV sedation. Leenie and I will never forget working through a tumultuous and scary couple of hours with a returned vet from Vietnam when the IV, instead of relaxing/sedating him, reverted him back to the scary role of a prisoner held captive by soldiers of the North. I'm certain that what we lived with him over those couple of hours was nothing compared to the actual ordeal. I must admit, as the years went by, I came to realize that as a GP I could achieve most of the benefits I needed from IV sedation, but in a much safer way by sticking to Nitrous Oxide. I thank LLU every time I use it. In important ways, it provides the clinician the capability of rapid reversal by simply switching from Nitrous mix to total Oxygen. More recently, I was again reminded of the fact that many US immigrants entering at the age of the draft (or simply old enough to enlist) participated as American soldiers and paid their price as US vets. Two years ago, my dentist daughter, Dr Jaleena Jessop, and I encountered a case where a World War II veteran needed rehabilitation. He needed us to work on the "full mouth rehabilitation" I'd done for this veteran in the late 70s. Now, with a few more years of experience under my belt and greater ability to listen, we discovered that Helmut at the age of 8 came to America in the 1930s with all of his family to escape the entrapment and goofiness of Hitler's Nazi Germany. At age 19, he was part of the largest amphibious armada the world has ever known, landing with the Allies on the beaches of Normandy. We all know the tremendous price these veterans paid. Regardless the war or the popularity of the war, we all owe a world of gratitude to those who have served. We often hear the phrase "God Bless America". It is fitting we often exclaim same or similar feelings of gratitude as portrayed by the example of a like phrase: "God Bless our soldiers and veterans". And, may we all do all that we reasonably can do to minimize the need for war as much as it is possible. As a start, we can begin by living as Gandhi taught: "Become the change you wish to see in the world". I thank all soldiers and veterans on this special day of remembrance. Dan