They’re everywhere. They’re in shop windows, plastered on cars, scattered on lawns — hell, they’re even on shoes.

They’re kind of like Mona Lisa’s eyes: No matter where we go, no matter what we do, there they are again. They were never there before Sept. 11, but now they’re everywhere: “Support Our Troops.”

When we stop to ask the owners of the signs, “How and where did you serve,” the “proud and patriotic” owners of the signs accusingly mutter, “Who the hell do you think you are? Don’t you support our troops?”

We’ve heard that very same voice oh-so-many times before:

We heard that voice before, when we received our draft notices and enlisted, and “proud and patriotic” people snidely intoned, “Who the hell do you think you are?”

We heard that voice before, when we marched in formation in our Class-A uniforms down the streets of this Nation and “proud and patriotic” people threw dog feces in our face and spit on our uniforms while screaming, “Who the hell do you think you are?”

To all the “proud and patriotic” owners of the signs, who never served in uniform, but who have always given us the ol’ hairy-eyeball furrowed brow look down their noses: We’re veterans — that’s who we are. And don’t you ever forget it.

Don’t ever tell us to support our troops because you just haven’t earned that right. May God save us from the false patriots who swaddle themselves in our flag.

Richard A. Fleming

Ames