Crossing America

Toby Harndon, the US Editor of of the British Telegraph, is making a road trip across America and blogging about it daily at his Telegraph blog. In his blog post from yesterday, he has an interesting observation.

At Oklahoma City airport, we met a soldier, Private First Class Karen Casteel, 36, a single mother who had just spent 10 months away training while her parents looked after her son Taylor, six – who was kitted out in fatigues and holding a sign that read: “Welcome Home, Private Mom”. It was a reminder that in much of Middle America support for the war against Islamofascism remains solid.

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said PFC Casteel, an avionics mechanic on Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters, as she hugged Taylor. “It’s my job and I figure that every one person can make a difference.” She fully expects to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan any time.

Why would someone like this join the National Guard and be fully supported by her family in doing so? College credits and sign-up bonuses are certainly part of it. There’s also an individual’s get-up-and-go factor (which is where Michael Moore is almost 180 degrees out of whack) – plus the US armed forces are engines of social mobility.

But there’s also a deep patriotism, to which that the memorials to Americans who gave their lives in far-flung lands that dot the country bear silent testimony.

Exactly. Away from the East and Left coasts, America is quite different in many ways. Patriotism is not just a word in the heartland; it is a deeply held belief. Harndon also has some sharp observations on the problems Democrats are suddenly facing like Hillary Clinton's adventures in sockpuppetry to Barack Obama's apparently cold reception from the press over a recent press conference performance. It's worth a read.