SERVICE: Earn right to criticize

I find it difficult to even begin to address the nonsensical rubbish spewed by Mr. Gary Edwards. Obviously Gary you’ve never served in the military, much less in a combat role. I served 20 years in the Army, four tours in Vietnam and wounded three times in places no one knew or cared about as a grunt-infantryman. In that time I killed enemy soldiers. It didn’t make me happy, but it didn’t make me sad. It was the job. The job my country sent me to do.

Men fighting for their lives suffer from a kind of fear impossible to describe. To combat or insulate against this terrible fear they develop what is referred to as “gallows humor.” It’s humor that only a person facing death day in and out understands. Non-combatants cannot possibly fathom it. Many times I heard nervous kids say something like “I guess we’ll kill some dinks today” or words to that effect. The reality was that no one actually wanted to even see an enemy soldier.

I witnessed young men, teenagers really, lay their lives down for their friends without hesitation or complaint. Many would never live to fall in love, have children, or see their grandchildren. But they were the most noble, selfless men I have ever known. And I can’t even imagine the heartbreak their families suffer.

But people like you sitting here safe and sound and talking trash about real heroes like Chris Kyle don’t even stop to realize it’s people like Chris who make it possible for folks like you to speak freely in the first place. But I doubt you would understand that concept, Gary, because people like you prefer talk to action. The “old guy wearing the retired Army cap” you referred to who didn’t like Obama, probably earned his right to dislike Obama or any other posturing politician. What have YOU earned Gary?

In the years I have traveled this Earth I know there will always be one constant: There will always be evil, power-driven bullies and tyrants bent on taking what’s not theirs, whether it’s another person’s belongings or someone’s country. The Chris Kyles of the world are the only ones who stand between freedom and tyranny. Because talk, Gary, only goes so far.

If you like your freedom don’t thank a politician, thank a soldier. War is Hell! But the safety of our Republic will depend in the future, as it has in the past, on the willingness of young Americans to put on the uniform when called upon. Thank God for Chris Kyle, and others like him, who answered the call and did their duty with valor and honor.

ROBERT O. MARTIN

Coeur d’Alene