Free Republic

THIS TORE ME UP: Perhaps the single most powerful image  of heroism I've seen...Three Generations of Valor in this one... Pearl Harbor survivor Houston James of Dallas embraces Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during a Veterans Day commemoration in Dallas. Graunke lost a hand, a leg and and eye when he defused a bomb in Iraq last year. Yep...this one hit me extremely hard. Both of my grandfathers were WWII Navy. I have uncles that were in Korea and Vietnam. I have cousins who did Gulf War 1 and The War on Terror. Tonight I sit grateful for the freedoms...

A happy face smiles back from the scope of a U.S. Army sniper's rifle, during a mission searching for insurgents in Mosul, Iraq, Monday, Nov. 22, 2004. U.S. and Iraqi forces in Mosul have been working put down an uprising launched by guerrillas who seized police stations and other sites. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)