I salute all of my fellow veterans. Happy Veterans Day to you.

This article is a day late. Veterans Day is a busy day for me every year. I am a peacetime veteran, and I have many friends (and relatives) that are veterans of foreign wars. I salute every last one of you. Well done. Thank you for serving our great nation.

At the church I attend, Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, one of the assistant pastors is a retired Army Chaplain. Tom Russell, Major U.S. Army Retired, asked that the veterans stand as he prepared to pray for our veterans and serving military this morning. He did this by military service, and I rose from my seat when the United States Navy was called. After the veterans of all five services were standing, he then asked for those with friends or family in Afghanistan and Iraq to stand with us. It was at this time my eyes filled with tears. Perhaps, as Bushwack would say, there was something in the air that made my eyes water.

Then the choir, after a wonderful prayer by Pastor Russell, broke into God Bless America. Okay, that was it, the waterworks turned on full blast as images of our troops and veterans flashed across the screens.

After a day of Veterans Day parades and so forth, my buckets were full, and the liquid needed to be poured out.



I'm going to tell you all something right now that I mean very seriously. We owe our freedom to these men and women. I don't care if you dislike Bush, dislike the Republican Party, or are steadfast in your opposition to the war in Iraq, it is because of those that served that you are able to even have the opinion you have without the threat of death or torture. For all you liberals out there, do you really think you would get away with half the crap you say and do if you lived anywhere else?

Freedom isn't free, and for those who have not served, you need to at least support our troops.

As for those that have fought for our freedom, Thank You. I know that freedom has a whole different taste to you, and we appreciate your service.

I leave you with the video below. It is a commercial, and one of my favorites. A Vietnam Veteran, Jim Stewart, reminded me of this one minute ad in an e-mail recently. He is the author of "The Ghosts of Vietnam", winner of the Military Writers Society of America's Distinguished Honor Award for 2005. You can visit his website for more details about him and how to purchase his book at www.geocities.com/militarypoliceofvietnam.



God Bless America.