The average college kid has not experienced the military. The Army would be as alien a place to most people as a one-way trip to a colony on Mars.

It is an entirely different society that coexists within the rest of America. We are still citizens, we are still human, and we are volunteers.

We volunteer to be subject to an additional set of rules and regulations, as well as certain professional requirements that in some cases involve forfeiting constitutional rights.

Being a member, or a former member of the Army, is an honor. If an individual had a problem with the military and got out, kudos.

That person has still done more for this nation than the average citizen. If veterans wish to protest the government, there is no problem with that.

Protesting is a right civilians, not soldiers, have. What civilians don’t realize is that a uniform is as sacred to military people as the flag.

Wearing the uniform improperly with the intent of defacing the government or the military is equivalent, to military people, to burning the flag. It’s a slap in the face to those of us who worked and trained hard to wear that uniform.

Soldiers volunteer to do a job where they are told where to live and what to do.

Soldiers live on a paycheck that in civilian society would be supplemented by welfare.

We take orders from elected political leaders and presidentially appointed officers, not individual citizens. Soldiers, contrary to Dick Fleming’s statements, are not cattle that have no character.

We are people that care very strongly about our profession and take great offense when people deface it.

I question what part of the military Dick Fleming claims to have served in.

If his letter is a reflection of his professionalism or career, I can understand why he is no longer a member of the service.

Brent Hayward

Senior

Engineering Operations