After the fact, we soldiers, at times, dwell on the overall implications of our actions in war because in battle there is no time for quiet reflection. Yet for those who have actually experienced “the rockets’ red glare, bombs bursting in air,” there is a meaning few of the uninitiated will ever understand.
Bear with our fellow citizens because you paid in blood for their right to be foolish, and don't respond too harshly when asked, “Are you going to the fireworks display?” Pass on lecturing them about how much more it all means than merely barbecuing, beer and bright colors.
Let them be, in the knowledge you bought and paid in terrible places for their very right to be stupid.
So my valiant brethren, I salute you all and honor your sacrifices for freedom every bit as much as I honor the courage of our forefathers.
I smile to myself when I see our own evolution physically and watch as we suddenly seem more like a fat and bespectacled Ben Franklin than the tall and straight Alexander Hamilton. Have no fear because a new generation of finely tuned warriors will one day don their spectacles and say “What a screwed-up bunch of Americans this new crop is.”
To our generals, I say that our forefathers did start being successful from behind the stone fences around the fields and not by marching out in straight fine lines upon those same fields.
At parade, march straight and true but in war be a devious ambushing son of a gun. We honor our gallant forefathers by remembering that, sir.
God Bless America!!!
Maj. Mark A. Smith, USA, Retired
Maj. Smith may be contacted at majorzippo@yahoo.com
