The following is an update to a blog I wrote a few years ago:

 They were a ragtag band of soldiers.
 Ordinary citizens with extraordinary dreams.
 Farmers, merchants, private citizens who left
 hearth and home to fight for liberty.
 They answered the call when it was needed the most.
 Freedom from tyranny was the loudest call and the
 only one they needed. The patriots we know; Thomas
 Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin &
 George Washington are all due a world of
 recognition and gratitude but the ones we'll
 never know deserve it just as much. They
 left their jobs, their farms and homes, but most of all
 left their families, many never to return again.
 They fought the good fight, froze, bled and starved.
 They faced privation we can only imagine.
 To them we owe a debt we can never repay.

No, America is not perfect. We have our problems and there
are those who will cry about unfairness and injustice. Tell
it to those soldiers who crossed The Delaware on a freezing Christmas
Eve. Tell it to the soldiers who wintered at Valley Forge in 1777.
Tell it to the soldiers who pulled boots off their dead comrades feet
so they could continue marching in the snow. Their sacrifices will
never be in vain. Thank you to all, past and present who have
served in our country's armed forces. The price of democracy, of freedom
itself was paid with your blood. The following lyrics state it much better
than I ever could:

Oh, beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!

Oh, beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.


Lyrics: Katherine Lee Bates, 1859–1929
Music: Samuel A. Ward, 1848–1903