While reading through the Daily on Monday, I was appalled at the publishing of Thomas Walker’s letter titled “Republican patriotism excludes those in need.”

My father was almost killed by a mortar attack in Afghanistan serving this country by choice, as most American service men and women do. Americans have answered the call to serve this great country not because they want to go out and harm other human beings, but because they want to protect their families, friends and liberties. Walker’s belief in the only reason Republicans support our brave service men and women is because they are the pawns in the military-industrial complex that fuels the wealth of the Republican party is false.

Republicans and Democrats alike support our troops because we are grateful for the sacrifices they make to keep us free. Our freedom of speech, freedom to peaceably gather in protest and freedom to worship God as we see fit are all derived from the brave men and women who have sacrificed time, family, careers, education, limbs — even their lives. Mr. Walker would not have been able to write this article if not for the men and women who laid down their lives at Lexington, Concord, Gettysburg, Normandy, Bastogne, Kandahar and thousands of other battlefields throughout the world.

God bless America.