Support the troops – bring them home

Last Saturday, I was privileged to spend some time in downtown Raleigh and participate in an absolutely incredible event. The entire day, spearheaded by the N.C. Bankers Association, was dedicated to the simple theme of demonstrating North Carolina’s support for our military members and their families.

The hour-long parade was spectacular with about 70 entries. Military members, military equipment , Medal of Honor winners, family members, Rolling Thunder and high school bands all moved smartly along the parade route. They were all warmly and enthusiastically applauded by the estimated 50,000 citizens that chose to spend part of their weekend as a family showing their support for the military “family.”

To many in the crowd, it was a great thrill to witness the flight of four F-15 Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson AFB flying low and fairly slow up the parade route at precisely their designated time to kick off the parade. As David Crabtree noted, the sight of this flyby appeared to evoke some emotion in me. In all honesty, it did. However, I was greatly moved throughout the parade and was simply thrilled to see so many people turn out to show they really do support the troops. We had no similar parades or respect when we returned home from Vietnam decades ago.

David and Pam Saulsby did their usual exceptional job of detailing each unit in the parade as the units neared the reviewing stand. The entire parade was shown at noon on WRAL-TV, and it was streamed live on their Web site earlier in real time. Quite importantly, the organizers of the day's events also arranged to have the video seen around the world by our service men and women via the Pentagon’s TV facilities. I am confident this viewing therefore provided a great morale boost to tens of thousands of military members and families around the world.

In the interest of full disclosure here, I did note a handful of those who found the parade and the day’s events offensive. At least their hand-made and hand-held signs would indicate such. One such sign was similar to the heading of this article. “Support the troops, bring them home.” What a flawed perspective! I have never been able to figure out how, if the troops support what they are doing, and if they are re-enlisting in great numbers, knowing they may return to the war, how does it make sense to say “support the troops, bring them home?” It may be a bumper sticker slogan, but it is flawed logic.

Oh well, some 50,000 showed their love and appreciation, and four or five had a different view. The good news here is that those military members and their families are making tremendous sacrifices so that a simple handful from a crowd of 50,000 have the freedoms to express their views publicly.

There is more good news emanating from the "Salute to our Troops" activities in Raleigh. The sponsors and organizers can take great pride in helping to give credibility to the slogan “North Carolina, America’s Most Military Friendly State.”