A Family That Serves

On this day when we remember and honor our military veterans, I want to give a shout-out to all of those brave souls who have sacrificed so much--some their very lives--to ensure the freedoms we Americans enjoy.  God bless you all.  We owe you a debt of gratitude that we can never really repay.

I am so extremely proud of my own family, on both sides; if you count up all the members who have served or are currently serving, you get a number close to 30.  And among those 30, every branch of our great US military forces--with the exception of the Marine Corps--is represented.

We've had Navy fighter pilots in the past, my husband among them, and we currently have a niece who's a helicopter pilot on deployment in the US Navy.  This beautiful young girl isn't occupying Wall Street; she's occupying a seat in the cockpit of a Navy helicopter.  She's spending 9 months on a boat; but it's an aircraft carrier, not a Carnival Cruise Line party boat.  God bless her, and all those young people like her, for the courageous and selfless choice she's made in order to serve and protect us!

We've had Air Force pilots in the family, too, and Army colonels who've retired with great honors.  One of my brothers-in-law served in the Army's Special Forces.

My oldest son has already deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan in his job as an Army officer and helicopter pilot.  One Army officer niece spent months living in a tent village in the mountains of Afghanistan, and another spent a year deployed to Iraq along with her husband, just shortly after the two of them had gotten married.  Two of my sons and several of their cousins are in the Army Reserves, and although they have civilian jobs, they must be ready to deploy when called.  My youngest son and four of his cousins are still in college; they are all on ROTC scholarships and will graduate as officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and as such face the possibility of future deployments to locations where they will be in harm's way.

I am proud to have a family that serves.  I am proud of our military forces.  I am proud of each and every veteran who has sacrificed for my sake.  And I am proud to be an American.

God bless our troops, and God bless the USA.