Thank you for stepping forward when others stepped back.
Thank you for placing yourself between us and danger.
Thank you for delaying plans for college, marriage, and other opportunities and choosing to serve.
Thank you for braving the unspeakable horrors of war.
Thank you for sacrificing time with your family and missing those significant milestones the rest of us take for granted.
Thank you to your spouse and your children who accepted your absence as a way of life and understand they shared you with a nation and sometimes the world.
Thank you to your parents who prayed to protect you.
Thank you for continuing to support your country once you left military service.
Thank you for being a conscience to our nation.
Thank you for serving as a heroic example of who we are and what we can dream to be.
Thank you for your service.
Dittos, if I may, to these words of thanksgivings and personal prayers for Blackie.