My Soldier

While taking part in #militarymon, someone made a comment that stated, " Soldiers don't die for their county, they die for they paycheck." I was overcome with emotions and actually had to step away from my computer to regroup myself. So here is a little insite on my Soldier. My son always wanted to be in the military. He started talking to recruiters at the age of 16. While other boys his age were doing what boys do, he was studying, reading any and everything he could find on the military. He decided on the Army because his Dad was Army as well as many others in our family. He received his diploma at the age of 17 and on that day he celebrated. He did not celebrate because he was "out of school" but because now he was able to go into the Army. On that same day at about 4pm an Army Recruiter knocks on my door. As we sit at the table discussing what my sons future would be, the Recruiter asks my son "Why do you want to be in the Army" and to this my son replies, "I already serve God and I want to serve my Country so that freedom or our freedom is never taken away!" Needless to say the Recruiter sat back with a look as if he could not believe what he was hearing. The Recruiter's reply was, "I have been doing this for almost 20 yrs and I think that is the first time I have ever heard that." My son did not ask what his pay would be, he did not ask for anything other than the opportunity to serve his country. I cannot say why others have enlisted in the Armed Forces, I can only speak for my son. Ten years ago I had the decision to make, to sign or not sign. I chose to sign because he wanted to do something honorable for his country. My son is now deployed in Iraq along with thousands of other Troops. So when someone says "its only for a pay check" they have no clue what they are talking about.