America's best weapon in the War on Terror is our offensive team the men and women of our military. They are the finest our country has to offer. Intelligent, dependable, willing to place the need of others before that of self.

Two weeks ago the Mayor and City Council of Berkeley, California chose to tell the United States Marines that their recruiters were unwelcome in Berkeley. This week the Mayor of Toledo, Ohio chose to tell Marines that their training should not take place as scheduled and they had to leave town. Apparently these city officials feel they will never need the aid and assistance of the U.S. military in any form. They will never fear fires, floods, or earthquakes and need military assistance to evacuate their people. They will never be struck by tornadoes that could totally devastate their city and need assistance in search and rescue. These officials simply didn't think.

I'm challenging you today to think. We work hard to ensure that our deployed heroes hear from us, but what about that recruiter, those who are here in the states training new recruits, the men and women who test equipment and make sure supplies are sent to the field in time. What about those who are the first to welcome home our wounded, and yes our fallen heroes?

What has taken place in Berkeley and Toledo makes me furious, but I do not want to become a tool of the anti-war fanatics who will use these events to promote their cause and further distress our hard working military. I want to step beyond it to something positive something pro-active. Here are my thoughts each of our heroes has been recruited. That recruiter was the first step in making your hero the soldier, sailor, marine or airman what he/she wanted to become. The anti-war people would have the world believe that they were coerced, threatened and lied to but we know different and it is time to tell our stories and here is mine

My son, Michael, had been haunting the recruiting stations for quite some time deciding what he wanted to do. In April of his Junior year of high school (1999) he told his dad and I that he was thinking of doing Basic Training before his senior year. We talked about it and suggested he also have a chat with his coaches. We didn't say no we wanted to see how serious he was. May and June came and went and Mike did not finalize his paperwork. Senior year football was great as the team led by Joe Mauer won the State Championship and the college recruiters swarmed around. Mike loved wrestling more so he was hoping for a wrestling scholarship. At the same time he continued to hound the recruiters. Mike received 2 football scholarships. He was torn he wanted to enlist, but knew our hearts wanted him to go to college. He accepted one of the scholarships and threw everything into football and studies at Concordia University in St. Paul. We could tell by mid September that he had made the wrong decision he was very unhappy mostly because it was not taking him where he wanted to be fast enough he wanted to protect people! He wanted to be protecting America! Mike stuck it out made the Dean's list and the day after school was out in May 2001 he was back at the recruiters office and left for Basic Training one week later he was now on his way

Mike wanted to be Infantry, shoot the big gun do the toughest and learn it from the ground up. It took him to Germany, Kosovo and the Diyala Provence of Iraq. On January 24, 2005 Mike gave his life for his buds, for America and for our freedoms, but that is not the end of his story it is simply the beginning of new stories

On a Saturday morning in St. Paul in our church, the Honor Guard was preparing to begin their vigil. I asked our Casualty Officer to speak with Sgt. Green, a member of the Honor Guard who also happened to be Mike's recruiter. Sgt. Green came and stood at attention in front of me and I could see in his eyes there was an underlying fear. He did not know what to expect. He had worked with Mike all that time to join the military and now he faced the worst the mother of one of his fallen recruits. I told Sgt. Green that I only had one thing to say to him Thank You. Thank you for helping my Mike be the soldier that he wanted to be. Thank you for helping Mike fulfill his dreams. Thank you two words that made this soldier crumble. Today, Sgt. Green is in Iraq and I count him as a friend and wish him Godspeed!

What's your recruiter story or the story of kindness received. It's time to send in the offense and take this opportunity to reach out to our heroes and thank them at the Recruiting Station, at the Base or Armory wherever we see them. Let's tell the wonderful stories of our heroes and all their contacts to our local papers. Let's make an all-out effort to tell the country how proud we are of our heroes!

To the Sgt. Greens of our military my deepest thanks without you there would have been no Sgt. Michael Carlson better known as Sgt. Shrek!
Merrilee Carlson, Shrek's Mom