The American Serviceman

Who is the American serviceman and why does he join the military? Is he the poor man or woman that sees the Military as a way out? There are some of those to be sure, but the majority of serviceman are the boy next door. He went to an average school, got average grades and lives in an average town. According to the Heritage Foundation, they are more affulent and come from middle and upper middle class families.
In a recent blog posting, Tucker Carlson, the host of MSNBC's "The Situation", tried to give some reasons for why these men join the service. He said, "So if enlistees aren't driven to the military by poverty and hopelessness, why do they join? For the adventure, maybe. Possibly for the experience. Maybe even because they believe in the cause." Mr. Carlson missed the most common and most important reason that these brave men join the Service. They join, not because the believe in "the cause", but because they believe in America and freedom. They are men that understand that our freedom has a price. They are willing to pay that price for the rest of us. Those of the WWII generation understood that price. As John F. Kennedy once said we must "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
The brave men and women in our Military knew this when they joined the Armed Forces. They are not looking for "our pity for their suffering" as Mr. Carlson puts it. They are looking for us to back their fight against injustice, and those who would take freedom from Americans or anyone else in the world. "Supporting the Troops" is a cliche that is being thrown back and forth like a hot potato, but supporting our troops mean to understand the reasons they were willing to go fight and, in some cases, die for our freedom.