The military is a lot like Ironman. First, everyone has a story. Second, lots of people have a difficult time understanding why anyone would sign up. Third, both the participant (servicemember) and their family share a great sense of pride in the journey being taken. And both require a great amount of determination, discipline, and support to ensure success.
Unlike Ironman, military service is a vital part of this country's past, present and future. While triathlon is a big part of our lives, the country would continue on if we never held another race. Not so with our military tradition. Every freedom we have rests on the shoulders of the men and women who serve in uniform. That includes the freedom to write this blog, as well as the freedom to disagree with what is said in it.
Recent events in Berkeley, California raised the hackles of military families around the country. The city council, forgetting the very freedom to voice their dissent is defended by the military, voted to tell the US Marine recruiting station in their town that they are "unwelcome" in the city. Only when faced with the very real possibility of losing millions of dollars of state and federal funding did they revisit the issue and indicate they support the troops while opposing the war.
Service members and their families find that very difficult to swallow. When the first reaction is to tell a recruiting station they are unwelcome in town, it is difficult to see the support they claim to have for service members. Their opposition to the war in Iraq is fine. Their dislike for the policies of the President are also fine. Telling recruiters, who by the way happen to be service members, they are unwelcome in town is not.
As many readers know, I spent 10 years in the Navy. That, however, is only the beginning of the understanding myself and my family have of the idea of supporting the military. Like many other families out there, we are a military family. My dad served more than 20 years in the Navy, as did my father-in-law. My brother served eight years in the Navy, and my sister served five. My brother-in-law, shown in the picture at the start of this post, has over 20 years of service completed and plans to complete his career with at least 26 years. With nearly a century of Naval service in our immediate family, SUPPORT is a very important word.
You'll note that in the picture my brother-in-law is holding a big gun in a very sandy location. That's about what we know. Forward deployed, no more. We can guess at locations, but never really know. We do know it's dangerous and we pray for his safety. We also pray for the safety of those in his command.
Support or oppose the conflicts around the world, we 100% support the mission of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. They are an all-volunteer force doing what millions have done before them. Defending our freedom. All of them. They ask for little in return, which is good, because that's what we, as a country, give them. We give them little pay. We give them little recognition. We give them little understanding. All too often, the only thing we give a lot of is flack.
That's wrong. The next time someone says the "support the troops," consider it in terms of a race. Imagine running a triathlon with the kind of "support" we give our troops. The only people you see on the course are people protesting your use of the roads. The few aid stations on the course have insufficient supplies, because the race director refuses to spend the money needed to stock them. And everyone at the finish line is there to complain about how you went about finishing the race.
How many of those would you want to run?
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