I love this country that we live in. I love what this country stands for, the hope it gives other people, and the care it gives to all regardless of where you come from. I love the life I live and I know it wouldn’t be possible without the sacrifices of a lot of young men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and our troops. Over the past 400 years men and women have died just for the idea that this land can be better, free and a haven for the generations to come. The only question I have is why don’t very many people feel the same way? I call these people “my fellow Americans,” but over and over again I hear them slandering away at our country’s great name. What happened to the great patriotism of the 40s and 50s? Where the country called upon the heroes of that time to give up the safety of home and travel to distant lands to defend what we call home; they did without question. Like many other American families, the elders in my family immigrated to this land from Ireland, England and the Philippines with the hopes of having a better life. Like many other American families, my family elders found a life worth living in a landing worth defending and they did so in every major American conflict and war. They didn’t do it for the glory of war; they did it so their family and families of fellow Americans could live happy and free. In a land that was just, fair, and free from radical tyranny. My great grandfather served in the infantry in the first world war, upon returning was a Boston fire-chief, my grandfather served as an army air corps bombardier, his brother stormed the beaches of Normandy and was laid to rest there as well, my grandfathers other 6 brothers were attached to the 101st airborne division as they dropped over the skies inGermany. The youngest of my grandfather’s brothers Roger was wounded in Korea in the 50s. My father’s cousin Tim served 2 tours in Vietnam, the second tour earning him a silver star, a purple heart, and a ticket back to the world. My father being a career navy-man himself served in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada supporting SEAL team 6, countless seaborne operations against the USSR during the cold war, Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, participated in naval support during the Bosnian-Serb conflict, his ship helped evacuate hundreds of Algerian refugees when rebel groups in Algeria were terrorizing the country, and again during the war on terror. I love this country so much that I decided to be in the military, I go on my own free-will and fully knowing the consequences. I go because I believe in our way of life here and I am willing to die for it and the only thing I want to know is why don’t you believe?