Growing up, there was a row of pictures in my grandma’s hutch. They were all photographs of each of my four uncles in uniform. Every one of them served in the military, spread out over three wars. Thankfully, they all made it home and I got to know them in later years.

We all have been touched in deeply personal ways by those who have and still do serve this great United States of America—this land of liberty, protected freedoms and unbridled prosperity. They are our family, our friends and our neighbors, dedicated to protecting a way of life that was born of a struggle against oppression and unjust rule—a system that told men, women and children what their lot in life was before they had a chance to live it. 

This nation’s forefathers fought for possibility, to break the chains of kings, and set out on a wild new destiny into a continent that was largely unknown. Through it all, our young nation’s soul has been its military men and women, an army of citizens not bound by some old, handed down obligation but by a passion for life, liberty and the pursuit of continued happiness. 

And now, at the beginning of a new era in industry, technology, media and art, all of these things are threatened not only by a pandemic that has swept the globe but by the fear which would hamstring our society and our economy to such a degree that once the virus has passed, what will we have left to show for it?

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

― Ronald Reagan

We must all follow the example of those who have fought and continue to fight for the liberty that embodies the heart and soul of the United States of America, of those who stormed Boston Harbor, of those who overcame the might of one of this world’s greatest empires at Bunker Hill, those who fought on their own streets and in their own fields to maintain this Union, those who weathered the horrid trenches of World War I, those who stood against the monstrous Nazi military war machine and the relentless ambition of the Japanese Empire, those who fought the expansion of Soviet Russia in Korea and then again in Vietnam, those who fought against tyranny and terrorism in Iraq and Afganistan, those who served in times of peace and those who still protect this hallowed soil. 

This a nation of doers, of innovators, of folks unsatisfied with doing nothing and letting the rest fall apart around us. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to fight for our homes, for our livelihoods, for our veterans and active service members so we do not forgo all they sacrificed to preserve. 

---

I exist and Recruiters Websites exists because of everything the United States Military has done to safeguard every tomorrow even before July, 4, 1776. Honor them, every branch of the military—Army, Navy, Marines, Airforce, the National Guard and the Coast Guard—by doing your part to strengthen this nation and its citizens. 

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

John F. Kennedy