> A "Soldier" -- whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve -
> whether Navy, Air Force, Army or Marine is someone who at one point
> in his life wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America
> and her citizens for an amount up to and including his life.

I'll hoist a pint to all my brothers and sisters who wear the cloth of our nation,
who are in harms way, or have paid for our freedom with their freedom, bodies, and lives.

--
Very Respectfully
The SandSquid (OIF/OEF/ONE-'06)
Petty Officer Second Class
Unites States Navy

Those are some tough tours Squid! Your service is greatly appreciated by all of us!!!

Major props to all those in the CVBG's of Johnny Reb; Big John; Big E; Abe; HTS; Ike; Reagan; Connie; Kitty Hawk; Old Salt; Chuckie V.; T.R. and G.W. Without question we have the Worlds greatest Navy; boats and crews! For 232 years now the USN has been a force NOT to be messed with by any country. God help any idiot that even thinks about it today.

Speaking of CVBG's...it sure will be a sad day when Big E is decom'd and replaced by the G.R. Ford. Since 1936 we've had a Big E, either CV-6 or CVN-65, on order or on the water excluding only 10 years. CV-6 had 20 Battle Stars to her credit and CVN-65 has 5. The history of those two boats is nothing short of incredible. By the time they replace her, a Big E will have served our Navy 66 out of 80 years. Not a bad run for two boats huh?

HOOYAH Squid!

IMO the must UNSUNG heroes, and bravest Patriots of our Country were these men:

George Read
Caesar Rodney
Thomas McKean
George Clymer
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Morris
John Morton
Benjamin Rush
George Ross
James Smith
James Wilson
George Taylor
John Adams
Samuel Adams
John Hancock
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Matthew Thornton
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Lewis Morris
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
William Floyd
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Richard Henry Lee
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Jefferson
George Wythe
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
William Hooper
John Penn
Joseph Hewes
Edward Rutledge
Arthur Middleton
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Abraham Clark
John Hart
Francis Hopkinson
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Samuel Huntington
Roger Sherman
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Charles Carroll
Samuel Chase
Thomas Stone
William Paca

They were the brave men that signed their names to this document knowing full well the penalty for doing sou would be DEATH, if they were captured by the British Army.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated.

But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full
well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr, noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few weeks.

John Hart was driven from his wifes bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.

These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." They gave you and me a free and independent America.

The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didnt fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government. Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldnt.

Sadly, that type of dedication, valor, honor and character have been sorely missed in our country for too many decades.