Posted by
Saint Michael on Monday, July 10, 2006 1:17:40 PM
Selfless Service
Leaving your family behind, leaving your job and your friends, your pets, your LIFE. There’s a dedication to preserving the freedom of your country that takes over when you serve in the Military. Putting your own life on the line when you know that other people will not.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Sir Edmund Burke
I was at a friend’s house having dinner the other night when the topic came up of my friend retiring from the Army as soon as he has his 20 years of service. He is adamant that he finish his 20 but he is up for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. In order to retire as an LTC he needs to serve 3 more years in that rank. His wife is determined to make him get out and not risk another deployment. I love her to death but she doesn’t understand the reason why people serve their country.
Her reasons are that he now has two beautiful children and a nice house, a great job, and a wonderful wife. Why would he want to risk all that and possibly get deployed again?
I have been on multiple deployments. My wife and I dated for 4 years before we got married and I was gone for over 2 ½ years of that time. I know and understand the sacrifice that soldiers are making on a daily basis because I have made those same sacrifices.
My wife has lived through having me gone, spent hours worrying and crying and wondering if I will come home. It’s not easy to be the spouse of a soldier. It’s not easy being the parent or the child of a soldier. Most of the soldiers that I know do not want to go to war. They spend their time training and hoping that they never have to put that training to use. That all changed on Sept 11. Every soldier in America knew that he would see combat. That means every soldier knew that he might have to take the life of another human being. That’s not an easy reality to swallow. They also know that it may be them losing their own life. That's a risk that I and every other soldier was willing to take to preserve the freedom of this country.
Back to my friends house, we talked about why people serve and why a soldier would put his country and his freedom above everything else that he holds close to his heart. Without the freedom, the family, the wife, the children can all be taken away in a heartbeat. That is the reality in the majority of the world. We live in America and we don’t see the horrible reality that the rest of the world faces. Without the freedom we would lose the ability to make our own choices, spend our money how we want, eat the food we want, go to the beach when we want, walk the dog, go the park, fly a kite, watch a movie, be a Christian, Jew or Muslim if we want.
My wife survived having me gone, albeit it wasn’t easy but she survived. We live in America the land of the free and the home of the brave. The brave soldiers will always defend this country and that Freedom and everything that goes with it are the reasons that soldiers are willing to risk everything including their own life to preserve it.