Now that I have completed my FPP pledge to donate $1200 in 2004, I'd like to make a new pledge. For this one, I am going to need your help. But first I would like to tell you a story.

My father was a Marine. He spent two years serving in Korea in Force Recon. The remainder of his career he spent as a Marine Drill Instructor. You can well imagine that when I was growing up as a young man I did not care for my father's strict rules and discipline. When I left home to make my place in the world my father and I grew ever more distant. It was only later in life that I began to rebuild my relationship with him. Sadly, he died before I had completed this task. One of the things that I most deeply regret was never telling him about the respect I had for him as a veteran. He served with honor in a world sometimes not so honorable.

I believe our veterans, as well as those "veterans in the making" who are now serving all over the world, deserve three things:

1) Our respect for serving with honor.
2) Our admiration for the sacrifices they made and are making in the performance of their duties.
3) Our support.

That is what the Freedom Pens Project is all about. Letting individual men and women serving in the Armed Forces know that we appreciate them, that we are thinking about them, and that we support them. So, here is the deal. I will donate $10 each to the FPP for any veteran who is a member of SMC and responds to this thread with your service branch and years of service, up to a $1000 limit. If you don't want to publically disclose that information you can PM me. Please be assured that this is in no way a political statement, it is merely my way of recognizing my SMC brethren for their service.