On the recordMarch 17, 2011
First, I was in the Marine Corps. I did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. I didn't do anything exceptional; but if anybody else has served in Afghanistan, I will yield to you right now. If anybody in this Congress who has served in a military capacity in these wars in Afghanistan, I'll be happy to yield to you. You might have taken a few trips over, and you can tell stories about the families that are impacted who you know. You can talk about people who you know that have been impacted. You can talk about those marines and soldiers and sailors and airmen that we see injured at Bethesda and Walter Reed; but if you want to quote somebody, you can quote me. I'm in 223 Cannon. If you want to talk to a family that's been impacted by three deployments, two of my kids, all of them 10 or under--I have three--two of them have been through three deployments. One child, my youngest daughter, has been through one deployment, the Afghan deployment in 2007. If you want to talk to somebody, feel free to talk to my family because they understand what it's like. What they also understand is the reason that we're there. Less than 2 percent of America's population serves. The burden from Afghanistan is on their shoulders. It's on my family's shoulders. They know what's at stake. That's why they basically allowed me to do it. They allowed me to go to Iraq and Afghanistan because of the number one reason that we're there, the number one reason. And it's not to nation- build.…
