I joined the Navy pretty soon after hs but that was 1970 and it wasn't like I was patriotic, it was more like I had a birthdate that practically guaranteed my getting drafted and sent to vietnam. My tactic didn't work tho. 5 years later the US pulled out of VN and turned our backs on the whole thing and forgot about it. Didn't even report about the khmer Rouge till about 5 years after it happened. Now we've been fighting a bunch of guys in toyotas for the past 14 years and every time we gain ground we give it back and then fight for it again so we can give it back. It's like hamburger hill over and over and over again. I mean, I hate war and so does everybody else, but good grief, what are we doing? It's not like I don't have allegiance to the US and love many things about her, but I can't, in good conscience, advise a young person to join up and be in harm's way for such fickle leaders bending to whatever wind blows the wheat. So I don't know, I still love our country and will pledge my allegiance to her without the intent of idolatry. However, the further these leaders stray from a Judeo/Christian moral and ethical foundation coupled with above, the harder it's becoming.