John Drake: “we can't talk about the global war on terror without talking about the 922,000 heroes who have voluntarily served our…”

“we can't talk about the global war on terror without talking about the 922,000 heroes who have voluntarily served our Nation, going to a land that most have never been to, to liberate a people most have never met. Before 9/11, I worried if America needed our young people, would they go. And we all know they did. I believe history will remember their courage and name them. But until it does, I call them Freedom Believers. On my first trip to Iraq, I met a young man on the crew of our C-130. He told me he had a small daughter, yet defending freedom was so important that when he finished his enlistment, he would join his Reserve unit. He said there were so many from that unit who volunteered to go to Iraq; he knew he would not be back soon. Another soldier said to me: Let me make this simple. In a football game, you want to play at home. But this is not football. This is not a game. This is war. And war must always be played away. We played at home on September 11, and we lost. My proudest moments in Iraq have been the ones spent seeing their smiles when I told them about the support that they have here at home. Many that I met were on their second and third tours. Their feelings are summed up in a recent letter to the editor, a returning soldier said: ``If the choices are pull out or I go back, I'm going back.'' On the way home from Iraq in Shannon, Ireland, as a Marine unit walked through that terminal, everyone stood and clapped for them.…”