Here's the catch. My father, a lib, served as a U.S. Army Sniper. He doesn't go around calling himself a hero. And for that matter, neither do I. I was motivated for liberty's sake. When you wake up in the morning and fresh dew has hit the ground, working on about 4 hours sleep, you just get it as you watch the sun slowly rise.
Chris
P.S. Most of you know how I was converted.
I have a friend who was a sniper in Nam. We'd been friends for years, and I never knew it.
One time, he and his wife went to the grocery store with me and my husband to buy steak for a picnic. He couldn't go near the freezer area. He couldn't look at the raw meat, either.
I asked his wife what was up, and she told me.
The building he was shooting from got hit and collapsed. His legs were shattered. He was full of metal pins, so the cold hurt him.
He couldn't look at raw meat, because he saw so many head shots it reminded him of it.
He was a hero, but unlike Kerry, didn't feel it was something to brag about.