Honor American Troops today. VOTE!

 This Sunday I happened to catch part of the Phils-Braves game right at the moment that Atlanta was singling out American service members who were attending the game. The citizens in Uniform were given a rousing standing ovation.

As a former member of the United States Army, I know those service men and women present appreciated the respect they were shown.

But the unfortunate truth is that many of us don't honor the privileges that military personnel protect. One of them is the right to vote.

When I was in the Army, way back in the age of the dinosaurs, when Ronald Reagan was President, we had an incentive to vote. If every person in our Company was registered to vote, and cast an absentee ballot, our Company Commander offered us a day off.

The offer of a three day pass (A Friday off, in addition to a weekend) to Combat Engineers who spend 99% of their time in the field or training was like offering a starving wolf fresh meat. But the deal had a catch. If we tried and didn't succeed, We would have to do 50 Push-ups at the start of physical training at 5:30 AM every day for a month, and do a ten mile run as a unit once a week. The idea of extra training didn't really bother most of my buddies or I.  We spent more time in the field than most units, and never around to do PT that much as it was.  But we all drank way too much when off duty, and extreme physical training that hard and early in the day  wouldn't go too well with our regular hangovers. But we were Engineers and we always liked a challenge. So early one Sunday AM after a night a heavy carousing we  decided we would show our Company Commander we could do it.

We had a saying in the Combat Engineers "We have done so much with so little for so long we can do anything with nothing."

One of our favorite beliefs was that if there had been a Combat Engineer on the Titanic, it would never had sank after hitting the iceberg. The Engineer would have pulled out his Army issued roll of Duct tape, and the sinking would never have happened.

Anyway once we set our minds to something, we got it done. By the end of September, 1984 we had all registered and our Platoon leaders verified to our Company Commander that we had all voted. The day off was scheduled, and we looked forward to having that second weekend in November as an early Holiday party one. Ronald Reagan's re-election was assured.  

But wouldn't you know it, the Thursday before our three day weekend, V Corps called an all out alert, and we had to pack up all our gear and head to our sector near the Czech border. This was 1984, when there was legitimate worry that the Russians might actual attack Western Europe.

Today we are all friends, and even the Russians hold elections, in a different sort of way.

My point is that if you complain constantly about what the government at all levels, Federal, State, and local, Tuesday is the day you can do something about it, even if slightly, and that is by voting.

 No one is going to knock on your barracks door at 3 a.m.  yelling "ALERT!" and make you drive in convoy for several hours to prepare to blow up bridges. That won't keep you from the polls. No one will surround your polling place with secret police demanding to see ID if you approach to vote. (But I hear some in government are thinking about it, and it certain minority areas, it might happen.)

So PLEASE get off your rear end and really honor all those who have protected your right to vote, and exercise it. (Your rear end and your rights!   I thank you, and all those who have ever served thank you.