Moby my hometown hero is my brother. Frank Cronan, he suffers from the effects of agent orange, crawling around in the jungles of Vietnam, he has shrapnel from his war wounds, but the worst part was having to take off his uniform before boarding the plane to come home, because after being sent to Vietnam he was met and many others like him by anti-war protestors and ridicule. He now has a defribulator, and pacemaker, the aftermath of his service. Where is the respect, and with the new generations it has not changed. I needed to make this comment about my hometown hero. And my grandson Josh Agan stationed in Japan, in the Marines I also honor and salute. -- Sincerely, Pat Revak Rome I don’t wholeheartedly agree with her on this. There’s no protesters meeting them when they come home, there’s just not much of anything. By and large, American citizens are more focused on American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and the Kardashian wedding than we are on the war efforts of the American military, and the honor and sense of duty with which they’re serving each and every one of us in that cesspool they’re deployed. We frequently hear how much individuals respect the military, but all too often our actions say, we don’t have a clue what that means. Where’s the outrage that U.S. Marines have been ordered not to pass gas near uniformed Afghan military, because it offends them. Did you hear me yesterday when I reads this little tidbit? U.S. Marines have been banned from farting out loud in front of Afghan national army soldiers because it offends them. They need to understand that the Marines next to the Gomer that cut the cheese don’t like it either, but he’s desperately needed standing shoulder to shoulder to the other good guys when it hits the fan. Do we think that offends them more than it offends an American wife or mother that she has to bury her soldier because he laid down his life for a foreign country that’s spend the last thousand years embroiled in tribal conflict, that hates us? The American rations should be several bowls of Pinto beans every day. Would any American soldier think this would be an unfair request of the offended Afghans? “Pull my finger, and send me home.” Pat, I thank you for taking the time to be heard. God bless your soldiers. Let’s get them all home, get ‘em some Bean-o, and get on with the business of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I also thank you for inspiring today’s Small Town Soap Box