Soldiers are a big part of our country. They risk their lives to keep all Americans safe. Soldiers aren't rewarded for their acts that they do to keep us safe. They go through a lot of training to be able to fight in a war. Soldiers have to let go of their family and friends in order to protect our family and friends.
Being part of a soldier’s family you don’t often know what they are going through or what they are doing. Soldiers don’t have many rights. They can’t decide where they want to go fight. That’s all up to the sergeant. When soldiers are in boot camp they can’t call their family, all they can do is write letters. In these letters soldiers can’t go into detail about what they are doing. This makes it hard for their family to know what is going on. Soldiers work day after day trying to be the best soldier out there but it’s difficult because of sergeants yelling in your face and you have to run miles everyday no matter how tired or hungry they are.
In 1991 in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, General Charles Krulak was the head of the Marine Corps. General Krulak did something horrible. He told parents that his young soldiers were fine and that part of the Marine Corps has nothing to do with humiliating each other. He told parents this because on the news they announced the brutal blood-pinning ritual. These young soldier’s parents were scared. The blood-pinning ritual had sergeants pinning soldiers by throwing pins at their chest to see how strong they are. Some soldiers died or got injured. Pins were actually thrown at the soldiers. This is disgusting and unthinkable for our military. This wasn’t safe and meanwhile the parents just thought their children were in training, safe and sound.

Even though oppression of our troops continues, the government wants to send more troops to Iraq to help the Iraqis. These are our enemies- why should we send our soldiers to risk their life to help them? A thousand additional troops will be sent. That’s too many troops to help when we already have lost so many.

Another form of oppression our soldiers face includes the dangerous things that soldiers see while in Iraq. Because of this, they can’t get a job when they come home. Some soldiers suffer Traumatic Stress, that’s when you have nightmares all the time. Trying to get a job is hard for people with this disease. Counselors help the soldiers that have Traumatic Stress. Half a million veterans are homeless at one point in the year, mostly because of this disease. Programs only help twenty percent of veterans that are in need. LaFlamme- Kusek post in Jewett City, is going to make an apartment buildings for veterans that are homeless. Not a lot of people help the homeless veterans. Veterans helped our country. They deserve somewhere safe to live. They don’t get a lot of respect. Some come home hurt or real sick and they deserve respect and a safe home to live in.
We Americans take thing for granted everyday. We flip out if our cell phone breaks, well try being a soldier they can’t have a cell phone and sometimes they cant talk to their families for months. And we complain about how annoying our families are, soldiers don’t know if they will ever see theirs again. It’s a risk soldiers take to keep America safe. Sometimes they come home without limbs and they still find a way to survive. Our troops need your support so if you see a sign and it says donate a dollar to our soldiers or veterans. Your one dollar might give a veteran a home or give more food to soldiers. Your support will help end the oppression of our military.