> >

> >

> >

> >  He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating

> >  two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run

> >  out of fuel.

> >

> >  He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose

> >  overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in

> >  the cosmic  scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th

> >  parallel.

> >

> >  She (or he) is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep

> >  sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

> >

> >  He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't

> >  come back AT ALL.

> >

> >  He is the Parris Island drill instructor who has never seen  combat -

> >  but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

> >

> >  He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals

> >  with a prosthetic hand.

> >

> >  He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass

> >  him by, but keeps the supply lines full.

> >

> >  He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose

> >  presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the

> >  memory of all anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on

> >  the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

> >

> >  He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and

> >  aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes

> >  all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the

> >  nightmares come.

> >

> >  He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who

> >  offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his

> >  country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to

> >  sacrifice theirs.

> >

> >  He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is

> >  nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest,

> >  greatest nation ever known.

> >

> >  So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just

> >  lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most

> >  cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or

> >  were awarded.

> >

> >  Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU."

> >

> >  It's the soldier, not the reporter, Who gave us our freedom of the

> >  press.

> >

> >  It's the soldier, not the poet, Who gave us our freedom of speech.

> >

> >  It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who gave us our freedom to

> >  demonstrate.

> >

> >  It's the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves others with respect

> >  for the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the

> >  protester to burn the flag.

> >  Prayer for our Servicemen

> >  (Please send this on after a short prayer.)

> >

> >  Lord, hold our troops in Your loving hands. Protect  them as they

> >  protect us.  Bless them and their families  for the selfless acts

> >  they perform for us in our time of need.  I ask this in the name of

> >  Jesus, our Lord  and Savior. Amen.

> >  ------------

> >  When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say  a prayer for

> >  our ground troops in Afghanistan.  There is nothing attached...

> >

> >  Of all the gifts you could give a U.S. serviceman, prayer is the very

> >  best one.

> >