Dear John,


Upon your back, you will carry a nation. As the wind changes, when it rains, when it is humid, when it is dry and the dust won’t stop beating against your skin, you will be carrying a nation. When you are asked what you felt when you killed a person who may have been innocent to your knowledge, I want your response to be “recoil”. Your actions will have a nation on your back. If it takes the life of one person, who may harm our nation, to save our nation, it is you who is carrying us. When your comrade is in danger, when he isn’t going to make it. Let him know he was carrying a nation, and that everything will be all right. You will carry the nation for him. When the sweat, or the blood is dripping in your eyes, wipe it away and continue carrying our nation.


I am proud to say I know you. I am proud to see you making such a brave stand, I am proud to say I know someone who has the courage to carry a nation.
I did not want to scare you, I did not want to make you nervous but, I know when you are out there it is not going to be the sweet words of come back to me that will keep you moving, when someone you know is injured, when maybe, you don’t think you will make it, it will be the sweet words of a nation that will keep you moving forward.

I am not afraid when I sleep at night, because you will keep me safe. I am not afraid of the man on the corner, for you will keep both him and I safe. I am not afraid of the man at the airport, or the suspicious couple on the plane, for you will keep all of us safe.

I am proud to say I know a hero. I know a man who will carry a nation. I know a man who knows a battalion of people who will carry a nation. I know a man whose father perished carrying a nation. I know a man who will be just as great, carrying a nation.

Jane Doe