Veterans Day 2025

Today, I post this as both a veteran and a grateful American. This piece is my tribute to every man and woman who has worn the uniform — those who stood beside me, those who came before me, and those still standing the watch today.

I wrote this as a reflection on the generations of American Warfighters — men and women who have stood guard through every chapter of our nation’s history. From the Revolution to today, they have carried the weight of freedom on their shoulders and paid its cost in blood, sweat, and sacrifice.

Politics, technology, and even the world itself may change, but the heart of the American Warfighter never does. This is my small tribute to them — the fierce, faithful few who have guarded this nation from its birth to this very moment.

The American Warfighter

The American Warfighter — nothing on this earth is more fierce.
We have stood guard at every turning point of this nation’s story.

We were there in the beer halls and meeting rooms,
when this land still bent its knee to a king across the ocean.
We were there when the first stars and stripes were stitched and raised to the wind.
We fought for independence, for freedom —
for an idea so bright it burned in the hearts of farmers and blacksmiths alike.

We were blessed by the fathers of old
as they signed those sacred documents —
the words we swear to uphold and defend.
It was a hard fight,
but we endured.
And we won.

When the British tried again to reclaim what we had bled for in 1812,
we were there —
standing as a wall,
wielding our fury like thunder in the hands of mortal men.

We were called again by our people —
to uphold law, to tame wild frontiers,
to defend what we had built.
And when our nation turned against itself,
when the stars and stripes nearly tore in two,
we fought not for conquest,
but to hold her together —
brother against brother,
heart against heart.
The cost was heavy,
but freedom endured.

We marched south across new frontiers,
carrying the flag beyond the Rio Grande.
We stormed foreign harbors in distant seas,
planting freedom’s banner in the wake of empire.
We stood on new soil,
reminding the world that liberty does not stop at borders.

Wherever and whenever Uncle Sam called, we answered —
our war cry loud and true.
Across foreign lands and distant shores,
through storms of steel and fire,
we came.

When the world burned in a Great War, we came again —
to show the earth what resolve truly means.
We were built by the Greatest Generation,
forged from the strongest iron and unyielding will.

The beaches of Normandy were stained red with our blood,
but we did not falter.
The Blitz of war tried to crush us,
but we pushed it back.
The jungles of the Pacific swallowed armies whole,
but they could not break our fury.

When the cold winds swept the mountains of Korea,
we stood fast, surrounded but unbroken.
Inchon, Chosin, and the frozen line —
our courage carved history into the ice and snow.

We were called again to the jungles of Vietnam,
where the enemy hid in shadows.
Even when the war followed us home —
when respect was denied and our service scorned —
we did not quit.

Through the chill of the Cold War,
we stood watch before the Iron Curtain —
a wall of freedom facing tyranny’s shadow.
Prepared for a storm that, by God’s grace, never came.
We waited, ready, steadfast —
guardians of liberty in a world divided.

And when the desert sands called,
we went —
to topple tyrants, to liberate the oppressed,
to do once more what we were forged to do.

Then came that dark day in September.
Smoke rose from our cities,
and the world held its breath.
The enemy thought we would kneel.
Instead, they awoke a sleeping giant —
and the fury of the American Warfighter roared once again.

To the mountains and deserts we returned —
relentless, unyielding,
hunting those who dared harm what we hold dear.
No mercy. No quarter.
Only silent death for cowards.

From the caves of Afghanistan to the streets of Baghdad,
we hunted evil wherever it hid.
The fight has changed, the battlefields have shifted —
but the spirit of the American Warfighter never has.

Our leaders may change.
Our politics may shift.
But the American Warfighter —
the fiercest on this earth —
does not change.

We will always stand watch.
We will always uphold the oath.
We will always guard the doorway against the wolves.

May God bless the American Warfighter,
past, present, and future —
and may His grace cover them all.