I am for reasons I cannot explain to myself, find myself having memories of my time in the US Army. I was young just out of high school with no real plan for the future. There was the war in Vietnam that was on the news constantly, and the unrest on colleges across America. I joined the Army in 1972. That was an action that changed my world overnight. All of the sudden I had to get used to being around draftees from all over America, and people who were from other countries who were putting their lives on the line for the chance to become citizens of the United States.

Veterans from the Vietnam era waited decades for their fellow citizens to finally say “thank you for your service”..I only say this because of the ban on people from the middle east makes no sense when we have troops in harm’s way on a daily basis in that part of the world. We as a nation need to understand that America is a land that gets its lifeblood as it always has,from immigration. We all need to remember that when we want to exclude others who are both skilled and unskilled who only want an opportunity to live and work in a country that in the past has welcomed others in need of a safe refuge. Even if they had to fight for the chance…That is the real America all veterans understand.