Christmas Poem

[Southern Breeze]

Thats awsome.I'll have to pass that one on.

[cormacmacguardhe]

Something for us all to remember all year round. My heartfelt thanks to all who served in whatever capacity. Freedom is never free it must be purchased with the blood and sweat of our soldiers.

[Big Paul]

Something for us all to remember all year round. My heartfelt thanks to all who served in whatever capacity. Freedom is never free it must be purchased with the blood and sweat of our soldiers.

Amen!




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[Big Dave]

What a tear jerker. Thanks for sharing.

[Shay]

As a vet, I appreciate all the kind words.

I feel I should point out a) we did sign up for this stuff, and b) Christmas is almost never like that for the vast majority of soldiers these days, thanks to great programs like Dear Abby's or local gift drives... which I encourage everyone on my in-box to contribute to when they send me e-mails like these.

Writing a letter to your government to ask them to treat soldiers better (however you may define that) is something I would even more strongly recommend- it's one thing to say I Support the Troops on a sticker, it's another to tell your elected officials exactly why and how you'd like the country to do so.

[bubba]

Shay, those are good operations and they are so because they aren't run by the Govt. I might sound like a bitter old bastard but I think about my time in the service as little as possible and prefer the Govt to leave me the hell alone. I do, however, do what I can for the folks in uniform to let em know we remember and appreciate them. I just don't much like talking about it.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

My own thanks and gratitude to those have served, wanted to serve, or support those that do serve. We all have many choices to make in life, and I am particularly thankful for those that have commited themselves to service for their country.

[cavscout]

I feel I should point out a) we did sign up for this stuff, and b) Christmas is almost never like that for the vast majority of soldiers these days, thanks to great programs like Dear Abby's or local gift drives... which I encourage everyone on my in-box to contribute to when they send me e-mails like these.

Perhaps I'm interpretting this wrong but it seems to down play the nobility of our military. There are plenty of people around the world and right here in the US that are trying to belittle the efforts and achievements of our military. There is no need for someone discounting it with "we did sign up for it". I've even heard, "you get paid to do that so it's not heroic".

And I can think of about 150,000 soldiers that it will be this way for.

If I miss read your remarks I apologise.

[bubba]

Perhaps I'm interpretting this wrong but it seems to down play the nobility of our military. There are plenty of people around the world and right here in the US that are trying to belittle the efforts and achievements of our military. There is no need for someone discounting it with "we did sign up for it". I've even heard, "you get paid to do that so it's not heroic".

And I can think of about 150,000 soldiers that it will be this way for.

If I miss read your remarks I apologise.

Cav, what she means, I think, is we signed up willingly to do a job that required personal sacrifice and heroism has nothing to do with it. I haven't seen anyone belittle the troops at all. After all, they don't make policy, they're given an assignment and go forth to carry it out. I've seen policy makers belittled and disrespected but not the grunts. The Vietnam experience isn't being repeated. Were we heros? Hell no. We were just trying to get ourselves and our buddies out alive. When things drop in the pot God, Country and Mom's apple pie don't mean a thing, it's about surviving it. Man, I REALLY don't want to talk about this so that's all I'm going to say about it.