Support our troops, always

Yesterday, my brother Michael returned home from a deployment to Afghanistan. He is amongst the finest U.S soldiers called Rangers. The amount of strength and bravery needed just to be considered for a shot at the Rangers is beyond belief. Michael brings so much to my family than he can possibly imagine. The amount of pride, respect, and love my family has for him is enough to last forever. Not only is he serving his country and fighting for everyone’s rights, even those who do not support him nor show any pride towards him, he unifies my family, not even knowing it. He is not one to brag, ask for pity, nor recognition, he does what he does because he wants to and he loves it. His kind of strength and loyalty is something people long for, for decades on end.
I do not know how anyone can look at a soldier, especially one of such admiration, and not have their body overwhelmed with pride and honor. The things people complain about day after day is nothing compared to what my brother goes through on a pleasant day. While you sit at your house complaining about how it is slightly chilly cause the heater is not working, my brother sits in 100 degree weather with layers of armor on, not daring to take it off cause he knows the risks he is facing. While you yell at your waiter in the restaurant because your steak is undercooked, my brother goes another day with no food after tiring missions. While you toss and turn at night in anger about the noise of cars and people outside your house, my brother forces himself to stay awake night after night with the piercing sounds of helicopter, planes, and bullets flying over his head. Every time I notice myself getting ungrateful or start complaining, my brother is the first thing that pops into my head. During swimming season, every race I swam and started to feel tired, I literally said to myself “Michael is enduring much more than this in Afghanistan.” In the majority of my meets, I placed top three in my events.
However people’s ungratefulness does not anger me the most. It most upsets me when people have the decency to disrespect our troops, to show them no support for their career choice. Every time I think about it my blood begins to boil and my fists shake with anger. It blows my mind, and I will NEVER understand those people, nor EVER have ANY respect for them, their point of views, or opinions. Whether you agree with the war, disagree with it, or completely petrified about it, honoring and supporting our troops should not be a question in your head. So, for every solider out there know that there are always people supporting you, and those people’s support over shine the ignorant, dishonorable “citizens of the U.S.A” who try to cast a negative light on your career. God bless our troops, the true, ultimate heroes in this country.