I spent 24 years in the “active-duty” service of my country. I put that in quotes because, even though I no longer wear a uniform, I am still active in the defense of this once-great nation. I swore an oath when I enlisted on 26 February 1979, and again on 29 May 1985 when I received my commission as an Air Force officer that I would “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.”
In 1979 and in 1985 the perceived enemy was the Soviet Union. Though the USSR has rightfully faded into the dustbin of history, there are still foreign enemies aplenty. More than ever before, though, the fight is also against the domestic enemies of the Constitution of these United States. What grieves me most of all is that many of those enemies are within our own government.
It’s easy to join the fight when there’s a visible enemy wearing a military uniform. What do you do and how do you respond when the folks who want to tear down the Constitution are fellow citizens – or our duly elected officials? Our own president has called for a civilian national security force. Who needs protection? Against what threat? I am over-reacting? Maybe, maybe not.
