 Like many young people, my reasons for serving were probably varied. A lot of people will say that they served to defend their country and the betterment of the nation, but that's often something we learn while we're serving. The reasons I chose to serve, I grew up in Massachusetts where the history of the Revolutionary War was often discussed and it's kind of romantic and exciting. I also grew up along the sea and so the Navy was my first choice. Ultimately I came from a family without much means and in order to finish college I joined a Navy program that they would pay me to finish school so I could get my degree. And then I started joining and I only had an initial commitment and it's kind of interesting how our perspectives change about why we serve from our initial perspectives which tend to be a little shallow like all young people to be very profound once we're actually serving. And soon enough I had been in the Navy almost 27 years and it was time to retire. For the shining example on the hill for people and countries throughout the world and it's veterans that are willing to lose some of their freedoms because when you join the military you do lose some freedoms. To risk your life, not everybody dies but people do and veterans go out there and they lose their lives, they lose their limbs, lose their vision and they're doing it because I think America is a great place and we hope that there will always be people that will be willing to stand up and defend the Constitution and defend the freedoms that we have and so thank you veterans for doing that for my children and my grandchildren for you. Perhaps the best way we could honor a veteran is to go a step farther and to have a conversation and to ask the veteran, what did you do? Did you serve in the Army, the Navy? How many years were you in? Where did you go? What did you do? Did you like it? Was it hard? Did you lose friends? Where did you go? To a good job representing your country. What campaigns were you in? What actions? What war? Have a conversation over coffee or doughnut and find out what it really meant to that veteran to have to spend years of his or her life standing up for America. It's better than saying, you know, thank you for serving. That's nice. But go beyond and say to have a few minutes, let's talk. Tell me about it. That's how I would serve a veteran.