Letter From A Soldier

[Duane Thomas]

Before Greg Hamilton was head man at InSights Training Center, a firearms instructor and multiple winner of the National Tactical Invitationals, he was an active duty U.S. Army Ranger and Green Beret. Got the following letter from him recently:

Hello, Old Friends (and for some of you, I do mean OLD friends),

Some of you I've spoken to recently, and others I have not seen in many years. I just went through my old e-mail messages and found a bunch of your names.

Last week I rejoined 19th Special Forces Group. I expect to be deployable in two months or less.

As far as business, it will go on as normal with Stephanie and John doing the full-time work.

Obviously the decision to return to Service was not easy. But I 100% support our goals and our mission. As most of you know, whether or not our country has declared war, war has been declared against us. And I don't mean the attacks of Sept 11, they were only one operation of our enemies' war. Our enemies have published formal, written declarations of war against us; these declarations make it clear that civilian targets are legitimate in their eyes, and their goal is the complete destruction of our way of life. Many of us just didn't pay attention until Sept 11.

I believe in our President, I believe he is truly a moral man, who has the right goals in mind. I believe our conduct in Iraq proves this. Never in the history of mankind has a more moral and discriminatory war taken place. Never has a country gone to such trouble and expense to reduce not only civilian casualties, but even causalities among our enemy's unfortunate conscripted troops. I have not supported all the military actions this country has gotten itself into. I can't support wasting soldiers lives or propping up some totalitarian regime. I can and do support the War on Terror and the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq fully.

I don't want to preach, as many of you may have different views. I just wanted to write mine down.

As I said, I should be around for a few more months, but what and where I will deploy to is pure speculation.

Hope to see you again soon.

Greg Hamilton

P.S.

A couple of you will like this, I saw a quote today: "If you're a pacifist who hasn't been murdered or enslaved, thank a soldier."

[DougBarnes101]

Duane,

Thanks for the letter from Mr. Hamilton. I do not know this fine individual but it's good to know that there are men like him defending this country.

[shadetree]

It's good to know that so many Americans are willing to act on what they believe and risk their lives for the rest of us. I wish your friend all the best and thank him for his continued service to this great nation. I hope he knowas that the winers and the protesters are in the minority and that most of the people I know have nothing but love and respect for those willing and able to defend the rest of us.