10/06/2004 01:31:14 PM|||Toni|||Read the short article. I see this from many of the troops with whom I communicate. They thank ME for writing and sending packages! Can you imagine? I'm the one who thanks them cause they are doing the work and heavy lifting while I'm at home and comfortable.

As a senior officer told me the day before I left Baghdad: "You've gotten to see what I see, Austin. These young people are so smart."

"Where do they come from?" I asked him.

"I don't know. Many were in the service before 9-11, but a lot of the young enlisted people, they've come in since then."

"Maybe it's the pressure, circumstances," I said. "You know, terrible challenges, the old saw of rising to the occasion?"

We both looked at each other. No doubt that is the case -- but the challenges these young people meet day in and day out are so dangerous and daunting.
|||109708747496204352|||The New Greatest Generation - On Point Commentary by Austin Bay �StrategyPage.com