"I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind the soldier at Valley Forge as he holds his musket in his bloody hands.  He stands barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded from months of battle and emotionally scarred from the eternity away from his family, surrounded by nothing but death and carnage of war.  He stands though, with fire in his eyes and victory on his breath.  He looks at us now in anger and disgust and tells us this... 'I give you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your children graduate too illeterate to read it.  I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you stay home because it rains.  I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business.  I orphaned my children to give you a government to serve you and it has stolen democracy from the people.'  It's the soldier, not the reporter that gives you freedom of the press.  It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who allows you to demonstrate.  It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!"
These photos are of my husband, a member of the KY National Guard, while he was serving his second tour as an MP in Iraq.  He is currently serving his third tour in Iraq.  Regardless of your political beliefs please keep our soldier is your thoughts.  It's a tough job they're doing.
This is a wild bird that lives near the motor pool at one of the camps he was stantioned at.
The streets of Karbala, Iraq
"The average age of the military man is 19 years.  He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy...He is 10 or 15 pounds lighter now than when he was at home because he is working and fighting from before dawn to well after dusk...He can field strip a rifle in 30 seconds and reassemble it in less time in the dark.  He can recite to you the nomaclature of a machine gun or grenade launcher & use either one effectively if he must.  He digs foxholes & latrines & can apply first aid like a professional.  He can march until he is told to stop or stop until he is told to march.  He obeys orders instantly & without hesitation, but he is not without spirit or individual dignity...If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food.  He'll even split his ammunitin with you in the midst of battle when you run low...He will do twice the work of a civilian, draw half the pay & still find ironic humor in it all...He feels every note of the National Anthem vibrate through his body while at rigid attention, while tempering the burning desire to 'square-away' those around him who haven't bothered to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking.  In an odd twist, day in & day out, far from home, he defends their right to be disrespectful.  Just as did his Father, Grandfather & Great-Grandfather, he is paying the price for our freedom.  Beardless or not, he is not a boy.  He is the American fighting man that has kept this country free for over 200 years...Remember him, always, for he has earned our respect & admiration with his blood."