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Perhaps some of you all don't realize how ugly this is to the people involved.

Well, let me tell you about my uncle Claude. He was a medic in the 82nd Airborne who jumped out of a perfectly good airplane a day or so before D-day behind enemy lines. He had been told that the casualty rates for his unit would be 80% and even more for medics (he had nothing but a service revolver).

Can you imagine what it took for him to jump out of that plane? But, jump he did. Because it was his duty. And the odds were sadly against him. He died.

Many times in my life I have thought that I had come up against some tremendous obstacle and have thought to myself "how does this compare to what Claude had to do?" And of course every time I felt ashamed that I had thought that what I had to endure was such a big deal.

Many people are called to serve our country in many different ways. I will never be asked to jump out of an airplane to plummet to certain death. But if I am ever asked to go before a Senate committee and have my every flaw microscopically examined, I will not shirk.

But I sure hope that we're not so desperate as to call on me. .