Proud to be an American

During my time in the Navy, there were some scenes that were avoidable. One of the most riveting and common events would be at a bar, club or any environment that enabled drinking.  Pack a place with military personal and alcohol and sometime between midnight and 2:00 am the same thing would always occur. I'm sure some of you with an uncanny need to stereotype are already thinking, a bunch of drunks getting into fights and being belligerent.
Wrong! "Proud to be an American" by Lee Greenwood is played and within seconds almost everyone would be on their feet screaming the lyrics, while I'm sure it didn't sound very good, it was guaranteed to send chills through your spine.

If you were never in the military or part of a military family, you cannot completely comprehend the sacrifice and loyalty that it takes to do such a job. You have no idea what it takes to execute a complex military operation and unless you are there, you never know the complete story and you don't want to know. You probably don't know that military personnel take an oath and part of the oath states "...I will obey the orders of the President of the United States...". While serving in the military, the President of the United States is your ultimate boss and it doesn't matter if you hate him or love him.

As citizens of the United States of America, you don't need to know these things, you get to enjoy a life of freedom and hopefully a sense of security, which is just fine.

It wouldn't hurt for some people to understand how our government works. It wouldn't hurt for some people to understand that some military operations require an executive order from the President of the United States. So if you think that President Obama didn't give the order to carry out the operation to kill Osama bin Laden, you're clueless and that's your right.

I'm not a fan of President Obama, but he did give the order and for that action alone, he deserves recognition.