His name was Michael Charles ..!! The other was Gunnell Sanders ..!! And then there was John Allen …! Names I’m sure you don’t recognize, but men, whose lives in some way I can’t really explain, helped make us who we are today as Americans.

Michael was too old to fight in America’s Revolution, but he helped supply the Continental Army. Lieutenant Sanders rode against the British with the Virginia Militia! Private John Allen wore a blue uniform in the War Between The States. My daddy, Frank Sanders, fought in the Pacific against the Japanese. And I went to Vietnam, an unpopular war to say the least, mis-handled in its execution, but righteous in its cause. My son, Alan, served with the United States Air Force. And my other son, Jonathan , dedicates himself to serving all of America’s uniformed heroes by hosting this website and sending “Hero Packs” to men and women in the theaters of the War On Terror.

Our family roots run deep in America’s history! The flag is more than colored cloth. It is a symbol of our willingness to stand proud in the face of evil. It is a perpetual reminder of the hundreds of thousands of America’s finest, whose blood forever stains the soil of a dozen nations, not as conquerors, but as willing liberators.

We are Americans ..!! Memorial Day is not just hotdogs and a day off from work. It is remembrance and humility in the face of the sacrifice so many have made for us. It is the faraway strains of TAPS being sounded in tribute to those, who, forevermore, will never come home. It is a day set aside to remember those faces in the old black and white photographs Faces that will remain forever young, because they that’s how they left home, young and filled with courage ..!! And that’s how they never came home …..

Americans, we’ve got to recapture our hope …!! We’ve got to reestablish our values! The values of hard work and the desire for good; of faith and charity and right over wrong ..!! The only way the memory of those men and women, who lie under white crosses, will be dishonored, is if we lose what they died to keep.

My life is impacted in so many, many ways by my time in service. An old guy, I served in combat in Vietnam, a United States soldier, attached to the 7th Regiment, First Marine Division. I guess I can sincerely claim the title "Dogfaced Jarhead ..!!" And I'm proud of it ..!!! Anytime I see a U.S. Military man or woman in uniform at the mall or a grocery store, I never fail to shake their hand. Looking at them, I find myself standing a little taller and my heart beats a little faster. If I could, I'd line every American military man and woman up, then go down the line one-by-one, saying just what this website says, "Thank You, Soldier ..!!"

That's why my heart is heavy following the election results ..! I had the dubious honor -- and so did hundreds of thousands of others -- of serving my country in uniform at a time when millions of Americans supported the blood and sweat of America's military, but America's leaders turned their backs on us. Never in the history of the world has there been a time when a nation's military won literally every battle .... but lost the war ..!! But that is Vietnam's legacy, because President Lyndon Johnson and his administration failed us ...!!!!  While we bled, they "politicked ...!!!" Had they taken the war out of the basement of the White House and given it to the generals in the Pentagon, America today would not wear the stain of defeat and the stink of having deserted our allies before the job was done ...!!!!!

I see the stage being set again ..! Set for early withdrawal; set for degregation of our goals and the dilution of our intent.; set to allow those who call us the "Great Satan" to once again kill our women and children on our own shores. I remember Vietnamese villages, whose names and precise locations are lost to age, wherein people were tearfully grateful, because American soldiers in 60's era battle dress, at the risk of their own lives, drove out the bad guys ..!!! But, before they were ready to do so,  we pematurely left those people to fend for themselves and the bad guys came back into the hamlets and villages...!! And the rest is a sad, blood-soaked story of villages burned, civilians killed and brave American soldiers forever tainted by the word "defeat," forged --- not by a foreign army, but by their own leaders..!! God forgive them ..!!!

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the stage is being set again for America's defeat, because we've elected a man who has no concept what you --- America's military heroes --- are doing; no concept of the lives you've saved in the sacrifice of your own; no concept of the greateness of your mission, nor the professional way you carry out that mission. And, God help us, no concept of what it takes to keep America strong and free.

But some of us do understand you ...! To many of us in America, your work has not --- nor will it ever --- go unnoticed or unheralded ..!! We are proud of you ..!! We sincerely stand in awe of what you have done ..!! Every Iraqi school opened, every Iraqi street made safe, every bad guy put away permanently in the mountains of Afghanistan makes us stand and cheer you on to victory ..!! Soldier, Airman, Sailor, Marine, Coast Guardsman --- America is great, because you are great ..!!! And you have our support and prayers ... every day ..!! Job well done ...! Job very well done ...!!!

Rest assured, American Hero, what's happening around you is real ...! The lives you've set free; the quality of life you've helped secure for millions; the safety you give to us in America by keeping the fight across the seas ... that's what's real ..!! What just happened in America is ... only an election!   

My war was Vietnam ..! My uncle fought and froze in Korea near the Chosin Reservoir. Before that it was my dad aboard a merchant ship, manning a heavy machinegun to ward off Japanese attack in the Pacific.  America's history is replete with war ..!! America and the world fought the "Hun" in the war that was supposed to end all wars, World War One ..!! We skirmished with the Spanish in Cuba before that and it was brother-against-brother in what most consider the most devastating of American's wars, the War Between The States.  Seems every generation has its conflict ..!

And are they truly necessary ..?? That's one we can argue until the cows come home ..! But are they real ..??? Absolutely ..!!! And in most instances, wherein maniacal depots with diabolical schemes challenge the world, no amount of well-intentioned diplomacy or sweet talk brings them to the peace table. Ultimately, it is the men and women, who wrap themselves in America's flag, shoulder a weapon and undergirded by a civilian populace with a backbone and a will to win, destroy evil until peace is won.

Such men and women are deployed today ..!! America's best and brightest ..! The finest forces America has ever called upon to defend us from the tyranny of evil.  We ought to be proud of these warriors  ..!!! And, although deeply saddened by the loss of even one life, we must, as a free people,  understand that without them ... and sometimes their sacrifices ... America will fall. America's freedom --- and truly the freedom of the western world --- is soaked with the blood of Americans ...! But that blood is the reason we still enjoy freedom and liberty ...!!!! 

Thousands of America's military protect us everyday ..!!! Whether in Iraq or Afghanistan or dozens of other places around the world, they are there for ... us. I'm tremendously proud of our military people ... and tremendously proud of websites like "Thank You Soldier."  The TYS effort to give all of us a place where we can say how proud we are of our men and women in uniform is more than commendable ...!! It's patriotic ...!! And there's no more beautiful word in the English language.

I came home from Vietnam in 1969 ..!! They loaded us all from the plane onto buses for the short trip to where we processed back into "our" country. The bus windows were covered with metal plating to keep the soldiers from being hit by the rocks thrown by war protestors. Dear God, forbid that in the future one man or one woman comes home to an ungrateful nation ...!! God forbid ...!!!