Steven Kuykendall: “we in this country did not recognize the service of those that fought the war that I was part of. We did a terrific job…”

“we in this country did not recognize the service of those that fought the war that I was part of. We did a terrific job recognizing the young men and women we sent to the Persian Gulf. I will stand foursquare in front of anybody to praise the young men and women in this military force we have in the field today. They are asked to do more with less, more frequently, than any force we have had in our recent history that I am aware of. I live that from my past experience. I live it from my current experience with a daughter that is involved in those kinds of conflicts. I find it distasteful, in order to stand up, and want to praise the civilian leadership, which is actually their praise comes by being elected to those jobs and being approved by us to hold those positions as secretaries of defense or other elected leadership that are civilian. And I am happy to sign on any motion to praise everyone from General Shelton and General Clark, whether I agreed or disagreed with how they managed that war on down, because they put themselves in the position of putting young people in harm's way. The civilian leadership is not the one where that praise needs to be. It needs to be to the people who were doing the job, the people who were there and had their lives at risk and had their families torn apart because of those deployments.”