While watching a news show recently, the interviewee was responding to a reporter who had asked about her son?s decision to join the military.
?We?re not that type of family,? she said, almost bewildered that anyone would want to serve.
My first thought was, ?What type of family??
And then I realized that the woman, whose son was killed in Iraq, had in one sentence differentiated her family?s East Coast, upper crust life from mine.
Where I come from, serving in the military is not something to be ashamed of.
Our county courthouse has large bronze plaques that bear the names of those who served and those who died protecting our freedoms. To this day I take a moment to look at those names whenever I visit. Military canons stand proudly in the courtyard, mostly for young boys to play on, but also as a reminder of the price of freedom.
I?m extremely proud of the new community memorial to Sweet Home?s fighting men and women initiated by Corky and Vern Lowen and others. It?s a beautiful and lasting tribute for all to see as they pass through our town.
My father was a Navy man who served from before WWII broke out to the very end. He was a torpedoman and had several tattoos to prove it…they looked pretty good until he got old and then things began to sag a bit.
My Uncle Tony, was in the Army, bore the scars of wounds inflicted by machine gun fire for a lifetime and spent time as a German prisoner of war. A German nurse helped him escape. A quiet, hard working man anyway, war was a subject he never spoke about.
After the war, both men went about rearing their families. They worked construction jobs, bent over in the heat of the midwestern sun for hours on end. They were, as Tom Brokaw pointed out, two of the greatest generation.
My one regret in life is that I did not spend some time in the military. When I graduated high school in 1973, Vietnam was winding down and military numbers were on the downturn not upswing after a long, hard and admittedly confusing fight. College seemed the appropriate route at the time.
So, when someone says they are ?not that type of family? the hair stands up on the back of my neck.
All of this is a long way of saying we get angry when we hear about our National Guard soldiers going to war without proper equipment.
I have many differences politically with Rep. Peter DeFazio but on two things we agree absolutely:
1. NAFTA is a miserable failure that has cost Americans far more than we?ve gained (despite what the talking heads on TV and Sean C. Morgan, our esteemed reporter tell me.)
2. All military personnel should be treated as valuable whether they are a full- or part-time soldier.
Rick Attig of the Oregonian hit the nail on the head Sunday with a piece about how Oregon?s National Guard units have been treated in training and at war.
They run short of ammo, fuel, soap and heaven forbid, even toilet paper, during training at Fort Hood.
If we are going to ask men and women to stand in our place, to leave their families, their jobs, their communities for months or years, we must expect to pay the price.
There are many wasteful government programs that dish out money to people who don?t do a single positive thing in any given day. They suck the lifeblood out of the system and return nothing.
If we are going to cut budgets, we should start with those areas, not by putting those in harm?s way further in jeopardy because they are being sent into battle without proper gear.
Shame on us.
The same holds true for our veteran?s hospitals. Our society made a contract, an oath to those veterans that said we would take care of them for life, no matter what.
Now that they are getting old and costs are escalating, we want to cut our losses.
Sorry, that?s not how an oath works. You live up to your word in good times or bad. No matter what the cost especially when that oath is made to someone who stood in your place on the firing line.
While we sit in a restaurant today eating lunch, a soldier or sailor somewhere is eating cold rations out of a can or a lukewarm MRE (meal ready to eat).
When we took a long hot shower this morning, a soldier somewhere is wiping sweat from his brow and hopes for some fresh water for a spit bath.
While we?re watching TV news tonight, in the comfort of our warm home, a soldier somewhat is hunkered down in a cold hole in the sand in some far away land standing watch…for us.
When we tell our kids we love them and give them a kiss goodnight, a soldier somewhere pulls a weathered photo of his or her loved ones from his pocket and wishes he could do the same.
It?s time we remember those sacrifices and develop budgets that reflect those commitments and values.
Just as importantly, we should be proud of them, not ashamed.
When one of our enemies puts a soldier in his sights, he isn?t wondering if he?s full or part time military, whether he?s a dentist, mechanic or school teacher back in the ?real world?. He has only one objective and that?s to take his life.
Our objective should be to give our soldiers and sailors every possible piece of equipment and training to keep that from happening.
Period. Game over. If you don?t think so, perhaps you should take his place.