I am a veteran, a volunteer from The Volunteer State.  I served on active duty for three years and nine months in Texas and Europe from 1957 to 1960, during The Cold War, completing my service in 603rd Communications Squadron, Hq 3d AF, South Ruislip, England, although I pulled my share of guard duty in the Texas heat and Bavarian snow, pulled TDY all over Europe and North Africa and ate my quota of K rations along the way.  Both of my sons served during Desert Storm, Doug with the 5th Marine Air Wing, and Bruce as a nuclear power technician aboard USS Puffer, a fast attack submarine.  I don't know whether or not I am related to WO Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot who saved as many Vietnamese civilians as he could at Mi Lai, but I hope so.  Dad's baby brother, J. B. (John Burton) McDaniel was the only one of the family to serve in the Korean war, as far as I know.  But Dad, CPO James E. McDaniel, was the oldest man from Sullivan County, Tennessee to serve in World War II.  Two years too old to be drafted, he volunteered and served in "The Gator Navy" in the Pacific. His last ship was LSM(R) 402, where he served as Chief Radio Operator. He was joined in the Pacific by his brothers Paul and J.B., by twelve of my uncles and one aunt, altogether, who served on active duty during WWII, eight of them in combat.  Lt JG Julia Maxwell Croasdell was one of the few WAVE officers commissioned in WWII.  She and her husband, Cmdr Cameron Croasdell, spent the war in The Pentagon on duty which they could not discuss.  Her brother-in-law, and one of my favorite uncles, Lt Cmdr Merle W Smedberg of Jamestown, NY, was Radar Officer aboard USS Augusta throughout the war.  I believe Augusta had more battle honors than any ship in the Atlantic Fleet.  Captain Kyle McDaniel, of Maryville, Tennessee, another of my favorite uncles, US Army Engineers, assigned to 1st ID, commanded a special detachment organized to re-commission Nazi airfields after capture by his division.  He was engaged in the Battle of the Falaise Pocket and in the siege of Aachen.  His brother, MSgt Wayne McDaniel, was General George S Patton's driver and was severely wounded when his command car hit a land mine. My great, great grandfather, Moses Ball of Hawkins County, served as color sergeant of the 39th Tennessee Infantry, CSA, fought at Vicksburg and was captured wounded in Jefferson County in 1864.  Three brothers of my Maxwell gggrandfather, all three Harvard lawyers, fought in Union blue with three different Federal Tennessee regiments.  Another great, great grandfather's older brother, Alexander McDaniel, served in the Rowan County North Carolina Volunteer Rifles, CSA, and was killed on the first day at Sharpsburg (Antietam).  He was seventeen years old when he died.  My great, great, great, great grandfather, Captain (later Colonel) George Maxwell fought under Isaac Shelby at Kings Mountain and in several other engagements in upper South Carolina, although his most famous battle was at Tipton's Farm, against the forces of John Sevier, fighting to prevent the Lost State of Franklin.  There are no records of how many Maxwells, Balls and Thompsons followed Ole Hickory to Florida, Alabama or to New Orleans in 1814.  But militia records do show a succession of my McDaniel ancestors belonged to the Rowan County, North Carolina Militia. They helped to build Fort Dobbs (near present day Statesville, NC) and fought at both 1st and 2nd Ecoee during The French and Indian War, fought at the Battle of Alamance, at Cowpens, at Guilford Court House, at Camden and at Yorktown in The Revolutionary War and spent The War of 1812 manning defenses along the North Carolina coast.  My ancestor's brother, Capt Brian MacDonnell of Wicklow, Ireland, also fought the British, serving on General Sarsfield's staff at The Boyne in 1690 and at Aughrim in 1691 in the cause of Jamie Stuart.  Countless other MacDonnells, McDaniels, Maxwells, Balls, Thompsons and their kinsmen have marched in harm's way down through the centuries.  I mention this family history so that Republicans can't accuse me of being a liberal pacifist.  Southern Democrats have calluses on their hands, shoot straight, go to church on Sundays and spit in the devil's eye.

        I was brought up, by example, to believe that McDaniels serve.  As a young man, I never questioned the rightness of the cause or the necessity of sacrifice.  It was only much later that I realized that wars are instigated by corrupt, arrogant old men who decree what is right for other, younger men to die for.  They seldom take any risk themselves.  That is why those, like Andrew Jackson, who lead the charge, deserve special credit.  I have no personal doubt that George W Bush was, in fact, a coward and a draft dodger, abusing his aristocratic privilege to avoid personal risk or sacrifice.  I will always picture him as hiding behind 130,000 brave American warriors, as he counts his illicit Iraqi oil profits.

        Now I have grandchildren and, it seems to me that it is my present duty, not to defend them from risk or hazard, because I believe Benjamin Franklin's assertion to be true that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots, but to defend their value as human beings, as sovereign citizens of a free society.  Damn those who would waste my children's lives frivolously or for selfish reasons.  It is incumbent upon those who see themselves as leaders to recognize that loyalty is a reciprocal value.  Ask any man who has fought one to justify war.  Also ask him to define leadership.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the best example I can think of, who was an exemplary war leader and patriot, ignoring his own pain and hardship and giving his life for his country.  The other extreme is represented by Richard Nixon who made all his decisions in pursuit of his legacy,  sacrificing 50,000 American boys, and our nation's honor, at the altar of his own ego.