"Look at me!! Look me in the eye!!"

[Hulk]

21. 11Bravo...and proud!

I answered the call from my country. I only lasted a few months in the bush before my radioman and I shared a booby trap, and we both came home ... alive.

I salute you and your service. I wanted out as soon as I finished my two year draft service, but I salute ANY and EVERY 11Bravo MOS I meet. These are the men on the front lines...the ones that went down those dirt roads, through those villages, boarded those choppers in the morning and grieved for our brothers who didn’t board them to come home with us in the evening; slept in the dark, mosquito and bug infested jungle at night, and curled up anywhere we could to catch a few minutes of shut eye when safely back in the parimeter.

I never expected to come home alive. We were one...and we fought and died next to brothers who we loved and cared for in that hell on earth. We counted backward the days...and the wake up, until we reached the goal line and came home to an ungrateful country. But we were the lucky ones. 59,000 didn’t come home. Their souls are still crying in the damp, hot steam of a place we were called to serve...a place we were more reviled than even here at home.

I respect ANY serviceman or woman, but I salute those who carried the 11Bravo infantry MOS. What that disgraceful jackass said to you is what millions think about their fellow countrymen today, and I am so ashamed and angry for their arrogant stupidity. They use the word socialism as an insult, but they have no idea what they are even saying.

The way you responded is a medal of your character you wear on your soul. God bless you, and thank you...from this 71 year old soldier.