We get such men from little towns no one has ever heard of who feel it’s right and good to protect the freedom of speech for those who spit on them.

We get such men from parents who believe there is such a thing as right and wrong, and ensure their children learn what it looks like.

We get such men from the words, “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands…”

We get such men from the words, “WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…”

We get such men from students learning from that retired service member who teaches high school science.

We get such men from the ranks of people who hear about the duty, honor, and sacrifice made by such men who went before them.

In short, (sorry, not really) we get such men from normal everyday people who understand something has to be done to preserve the single greatest nation God ever placed on earth.

Oh, and thank you for your service to your country, Semper Fi, Mac.

They are there to remind us that the stupid idiots we see on the news each day are not the “best” of America and in so doing REMIND us why WE are PROUD to be AMERICANS!

Streiff, the WaPo page has been moved over here.

and even the women…

From the athletic fields of high school sports. The kid who made every practice, practiced 100% and then left it all on the playing field every Friday night.

We get them from the wheat fields and farms of the mid-west, where they worked side by side with Dads from sunup to sundown – and rarely complained.

We get them from youth organizations like Boy Scouts, JROTC, Sea Cadets and all the other programs that work to instill virtue and hard work and love of Country into our youth.

We even get them from some of the most improbably places and backgrounds. Young men and women who are aimless, but someplace inside them is a smoldering ember. Then they chance upon a recruiter’s office and say, “What the heck, why not.” And then they are immersed in an atmosphere of excellence and honor, trained, nurtured and mentored by NCO’s who breathe life into that smoldering ember and it bursts forth into a flame, so we can ask the question, “From where do we get such people?”

We don’t hear much praise for air power – or perhaps my proclivities close my ears to such praise. At any rate it sounds like those Green Berets owe a lot to the ability of our country to drop big bombs danger close. There is simply no one better I suspect in this regard than the United States.

Thanks to the Navy and Air Force that when they are needed, they are there.

I recently read a piece from some doofus saying our carriers are outmoded wastes of money. If you watched the excellent miniseries “Carrier” you noted that no bombs were dropped in anger during their entire deployment. But then again millions of us buy insurance but never need it. Carriers and air power our insurance policies for our valiant military that must be maintained. So long as there are dollars for pork and Murtha-sop there is ample money for carriers.

Some have been trying to write off the carrier for decades. Yet, there is no greater single sign of military power than an aircraft carrier.

I’m sure that in D.C. when something happens in the world, one of the first questions asked is, “Where are the carriers?”

The Air Force does a great job in air superiority and air support, as does the Navy. But, the Air Force has to get there and get all their stuff there. A carrier shows up with it’s Air Wing and all the stuff it needs to commence operations.

Of course, I might be biased.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived

It is somewhat mystifying to me too, streiff. I see so much decay and vapid, empty values in our youth culture today, and in our young adults as well — heck, in our middle-agers too, for that matter.

Yet, the GWOT actions by our military, the swelling volunteer force, coming from young men who know that by enlisting they are going into harm’s way, and in fact many of them seek to be on the line there.

My best guess — out of every generation, in a free nation and still great nation, there is a patriotic impulse that finds some more than others. I am almost convinced that FAMILY plays a key role in this.

Thanks for this post.

Thanks to respondents for their comments.

For Streiff: Wanting to be ‘one’ and trying to be ‘one’ – but prevented by adverse circumstances from becoming ‘one’ – shows, in my opinion, all the ‘stuff’ necessary for being ‘one’.

Thanks for your service.

GB

That’s why we lesser vessels should send a donation to the many groups supporting our troops.

I work for Wal-Mart at the Home Office in Bentonville and today we laid over 6,000 wreaths on graves in the Fayetteville veterans cemetery. Wal-Mart bought all the wreaths as part of the Wreaths Across America project and trucked them down from Maine. We had other trucks delivering wreaths all across the country even out to CA. I’m a Navy vet, from an entire family of Navy vets; dad, mom, sister, and brother, and I was nearly brought to tears from participating in the wreath laying. It was very moving. as Ronald Reagan said ” Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States when men were free. ”

http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/NewsRoom/8849.aspx

…we don’t get them from the ranks of the perpetually aggrieved, where’s my hand-out, the man’s keeping me down, “victim” class… unless they are the kids of “victims” who are disgusted with their parents’ lack of virtus and want to feel real blood flowing through their own veins.

Those of the self-imposed-victim class who do get into the military would never be in the situation those men were in because the whining class become desk jockeys, career bureaucrats, or perpetually whining grunts who only advance in rank because they’ve checked a box and served the required time, and not because of merit, ability, or desire — they only signed up for the benefits anyhow.

One of my favorite quotes:

“We sleep soundly in our beds only because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence upon those who would do us harm.”

hated and disparaged and insulted by the MSM, the liberal elites, Hollywood, academia, the pampered rich and the whining lowlifes. They come from places that believe in duty, honor, country, American exceptionalism, hard work, humility and patriotism. Sarah Palin knows where these men come from. Obama and his ilk will never comprehend.

God bless them all.