Supporting our troops

April 30th, 2008

I hear both political parties saying "we support our troops", but do they? I certainly do for personal reasons. I have a son in the U.S. Navy. He is in the "Nuke" program and we are very proud of him. It is one of the most difficult courses offered anywhere. My wife and I are extremely blessed with our children, they actually listen to us, (most of the time). Nick is almost 21 and has been a blessing in our lives since the first day he got over colic. Actually he has warmed our hearts every day of his life.

I was in the army and went to Viet Nam even though I had a lot of Navy heritage. I have the advantage of hind sight and advised my son to join the Navy. I was involved with special forces and learned how to set up ambushes and perform recon, there is not a lot of call for this in the "real world". I had known several of my friends who went into the Air Force and Navy who had come out of the service with schooling that was usable in civilian life. Nick was a solid C student in high school, as was I. He was much more intelligent than his grades indicated, but he did not apply himself and I believed college would be more of the same.

He was interested in computers and he signed up to get an education in that field.
When he took the ASVAB test he got 96 out of 99 and they rerouted him to Nuke school. To be honest I wanted him in the Navy because I did not want him "boots down" in Iraq or Afghanistan or even Iran. He will serve his country on an air craft carrier. I figured no one messes with the the U.S. Navy.

I got Nick to sign up for a Roth Ira type of program with the government. He can put up to 15 thousand dollars a year into it. He put one hundred dollars a month into a program for 12 months and is now eligible for forty thousand dollars in educational benefits. In addition they have teachers on board the carriers and he can take courses while at sea.

I have said all that, so that I can say this: the government and I are supporting our troops but when politicians use them as political footballs, or do not give all of the equipment they need, that is not supporting our troops. I could spout all the cliches, such as "Freedom isn't free." etc., but cliches are not enough. I know a lot of people have made sacrifices, some have given their life or lost their loved ones, and I can tell you from personal experience, I never found anything glorious in war. That being said, we should never start a war, but we do have to defend ourselves against tyrants that would destroy our way of life. There is a world war going on right now, and a lot of people don't even know it. Whether we should be in Iraq or Afghanistan now is a moot point. We are there, and should support our troops in word and deed.

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