Our (My) Troops

Support is an interesting concept.

When my brother returned from Afghanistan (in one piece), he explained to me what it is really like to be in a modern war. One of his comments was, it is not like those WWW II movies I always made you watch. It is like nothing I had imagined or could be fully trained for. It is nearly impossible to fight an enemy you can't see or protect a country when a bomb could go off in your face at any minute, but they keep going and continue to try to figure it out.

My oldest brother joined the Army more than twenty-five years ago and trained his whole life to protect us. He has spent years and years learning and sometimes teaching the best way to protect his country. When I expressed my concerns about him going to Afghanistan, he consoled me by explaining that he has been training his whole life for this opportunity. He feels privileged to serve his country, he calls it an opportunity!!! Imagine that?

My youngest brother is in the Army Reserves, he spent most of his summer training to protect us. He talks about his summer with pride and passion, he says that he missed his family but they understood what he had to do. He is not just saying that, his kids are very proud of their dad and the fact that he spends so much time training. They were excited that they had a short five day holiday to hang out with their dad.

So how do we support these people? I used to think that just being nice would work, but you also need to show some understanding that they have been through life-changing events and acceptance that they would do it again and again, regardless of the personal sacrifice. I have met many people that support our soldiers and they all do so in their own unique, successful way. Let's keep telling them that we appreciate that they fight so that we can live the way that we do.

These people are my living heroes.