Let us all take a moment (or more) today to remem­ber and honor all of our fel­low Amer­i­cans that made the ulti­mate sac­ri­fice wear­ing the stars and stripes. Irre­spec­tive of pol­i­tics, or where you come down on the right or wrong of a par­tic­u­lar war or bat­tle, we should always honor and respect those who geared up and served as the spear or the shield for our coun­try — span­ning time from Lex­ing­ton & Con­cord to Kandahar.

Be con­vinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. There­fore do not take lightly the per­ils of war. — Thucydides