I always say, although our military serves us proudly abroad, when they return home, it’s time for us to serve them.

But how, exactly, should we give back?

As is the unfortunate case with many aspects of life, it’s far easier to remain indifferent and ignore the service of our military veterans rather than step up and take action — or even offer simple thanks to a veteran in uniform on the street.

Beyond the natural tendency of remaining indifferent, I think it’s fairly tough for ordinary citizens and non-military families to figure out how to properly reach out to troops overseas and honor those veterans who’ve returned home — if for fear of politicizing the merit of military service, or being improper, or insensitive of their many sacrifices. Who would have thought that showing gratitude and giving back to veterans could become such a difficult issue?

12 Ways to Give Back to Our Troops and Vets

There are so many different organizations and charities that support our troops overseas and returning veterans that it can be a bit overwhelming to choose between them. Here, I’ve provided a list of some of my personal favorites — each cause is slightly different and offers creative methods for giving back to our military personnel.

For Those Currently Serving Abroad

1. Send a message of thanks

The fastest and easiest way to show your support for military personnel currently serving overseas is to offer a simple message of thanks. Visit America Supports You or Let’s Say Thanks and write a message of gratitude and support to those protecting our freedoms and fighting for liberty abroad. You might be surprised how much a short, simple “Thank you” from a fellow American citizen back home. Chances are you’ll never even cross paths in life with the troop who receives your message — which really makes reaching out to him or her all the more beautiful and special.

2. The USO

The USO is the mack-daddy organization of military support and veterans’ services. USO.org is rich with donation information, suggestions for fundraisers, and details tons of great ongoing programs that provide for those in military service and military veterans who have returned home.

3. Soldiers’ Angels (Text “Soldiers” to 20222 to donate $5)

Soldiers’ Angels is a terrific nonprofit organization, through which ordinary American citizens can “adopt” a military serviceman or servicewoman who is serving overseas and send them gifts, care packages, calling cards and specialized equipment like sand scarves. I became a “Soldier’s Angel” in 2002, shortly after military actions began in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. This year, you can send a text message of the word “Soldiers” (no quotations) to phone number “20222″ to donate $5 to Soldiers’ Angels in support of care-packages for troops overseas!

4. Green Beans Coffee and the “Cup O Joe For A Joe” Program

Do you love coffee as much as I do? Green Beans Coffee is a really cool coffee company that began by starting coffee shops on American military bases overseas. Today, they have stores and shops across the world and primarily serve troops fresh, high-quality coffees to give them a taste of home and an extra jolt of energy during their long days and nights. Their “Cup O’ Joe for a Joe” program lets patriots back home buy cups of coffee for troops serving abroad, which they redeem with free vouchers on their military bases overseas! Even better, your donation can include an emailed message of thanks and support — and the troops who receive your coffee donation will often write back!

Here’s my episode of RenegadeTV on “The Small Stuff,” in which I discuss this awesome program:

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. Operation American Soldier

Operation American Soldier‘s mission is to make sure that “No soldier walks away from mail call empty handed.” Not every troop overseas receives the privilege of care-packages and letters from home. Thanks to Operation American Soldier, you can send a care-package and letter of thanks to a troop who would love to receive one.

For Veterans Returning Home

8. Simply reach out. Say thank you.

When you come across a man or woman in uniform in your day-to-day life, don’t be so shy or afraid to take a moment to introduce yourself and say hello or thank you for being in the military — especially on Veteran’s Day. Read my poem and true story account of an impromptu homecoming welcome for troops returning from overseas in the early morning hours at Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport entitled, Dallas at Dawn. You don’t need to start a slow-clap round of applause, or offer a salute, or read a long-winded poem. Just say hi. Just say you appreciate their service. Just say thanks.

7. The Fisher House

The Fisher House is a “home away from home” for the families of military veterans who are undergoing treatment at medical centers on military bases and in Virginia. There are 45 Fisher Houses located on 18 military installations and 15 VA medical centers. The Fisher House is also a grassroots fundraising nonprofit organization that has raised millions of dollars for special programs that provide things like travel expenses for wounded troops, educational scholarships for the children of military personnel, and much more.

8. Operation Homefront

Operation Homefront is a Texas-based nonprofit organization that offers a litany of special and very important food-assistance services for military families enduring difficult financial times. Sadly, many military families have to suffer from not only the long months during which a family-member is abroad, but also the difficult times that can endure when they return home and struggle to return to “normal” civilian life. Operation Homefront is a great organization that provides much needed help to struggling military families.

9. Homes For Our Troops

Homes For Our Troops builds specialty houses for wounded and disabled military veterans — completely free of charge. Homes For Our Troops specializes in provided for wounded troops who require special access to and throughout their homes, like wheelchair ramps and other necessities. I learned about Homes For Our Troops through one of its celebrity advocates, guitarist and singer Aaron Lewis of the popular rock band, Staind.

10. Wounded Warrior Project

The Wounded Warrior Project is an impressive organization with big reach, striving to help wounded and disabled military veterans heal both mentally and physically while readjusting to life back home. The Wounded Warrior Project uses donations for peer counseling and special retreats for wounded veterans, even government policy advocacy to support military veterans. In partnership with companies like UnderArmour, you can donate performance clothing and athletic-wear to wounded troops.

11. Hire a Veteran

Many veterans of the military have a hard time adjusting to civilian life. One of the many challenges is finding employment again, especially in this dreadful economy. To help military veterans readjust and get back into the civilian workforce, the United States Department of Labor’s VETS Program and other nonprofit organizations and job-seeking websites help vouch for and place qualified veterans in businesses.

For Honoring the Fallen

12. Fallen Heroes Project

The Fallen Heroes Project provides beautiful hand-drawn portraits of a Fallen Hero to each military family, completely free of charge. Internationally-recognized artist Michael G. Reaga has undertaken the program, providing thousands of hand-crafted portraits of military men and women who have paid the ultimate price to their families — who have also paid a monumental price.

*Update 10/15/2010*

I cannot believe I neglected to include my friend and former co-worker (and Emmy-award winning documentary film producer) Tim Gray‘s many noble projects to honor World War II veterans, especially Major Dick Winters and the 101st Airborne’s famed Easy Company — well known for being featured in the HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers.

Tim, who has filmed several documentaries on World War II veterans, is currently raising funds for a Richard Winters leadership statue to be erected in Normandy and for the cause of recognizing all Americans who “led the way” in the invasion of Normandy on “D-Day,” June 6, 1944. Join the Facebook Page here to support the cause and keep up with all the news and updates. To learn more about this incredibly important movement of honoring our World War II veterans and to donate, please visit Legacy Connect: Easy Company.

Sound Off!

What are some of the ways that you support the troops overseas, provide for veterans back home, and honor those who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of freedom? Remember… our military serves us proudly, and when they return home, it’s time for us to serve them.

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Flickr photo credit: Jeff Turner

This is the only question that I can remember Captain Painter asking me over the course of our short interview regarding the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program in September of 2004.

Just over eighteen years old at the time, I sat opposite this stern-but-amiable lifelong military man clad in his camouflage battle dress uniform, surrounded by a litany of flags, emblems and military insignias. In a moment that stands out in my memory, I recall coolly replying, “I can’t see myself not doing this.”

My words were less a statement of confidence and certainty than they were one of aimlessness and resignation; more “What else would I do?” than “There’s nothing else I’d rather do.” As a member of the newly-welcomed Class of 2008 at the College of the Holy Cross, we had only just begun to settle into our new home on Mount Saint James as the heat and humidity of the summer quickly transitioned into autumn, as it always seems to in Worcester, Massachusetts.

It is September 2001, a blue-skied morning. I am a sophomore in high school. As second period passes, the student body congregates for a weekly meeting of announcements. Toward its end, the principal informs us that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. Without words, we look at each others’ faces searching for answers. The teacher who proctored our second period study hall, a historian, takes off his glasses and wipes tears from red eyes. We realize the answer.

As a brash and brazen patriot in a post-9/11 world, I had given military leadership consideration for perhaps a year. In early October, I ventured by consortium shuttle to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, home of the regionally-located Bay State Battalion and just a few miles away from Holy Cross. Days later I found myself in military uniform, ceremoniously marching, saluting and push-up’ing once per week in the brisk early morning hours, before the sun had even risen.

It is the Fall of 2003. On a late-night drive with the windows down, one high school friend divulges his plan to enroll in the United States Marine Corps after graduation. Maybe I’ll do something like that too, I tell him.

Hardly able to yet create (let alone successfully maintain) a routine with new-found collegiate academic life, the increasingly burdening dynamic of military training began to wear on my mind. I could never rectify the bizarre contradiction of having the so-called “time of my life” in college while training with the military for the possible or plausible end of it. All of the cadets around me seemed so intent, so sure and so certain, and all about issues as big and unpredictable as life and death.

It is April 2005, just seven months after the interview with Captain Painter. I sit and pen a letter to Bay State Battalion MS1 class’ instructor Master Sergeant Veals, who had become a mentor and good friend to us. As difficult as it was and as much as it pained me, I write to inform him that I would not be continuing the program in the next academic year.

Looking back at the experience now, I suppose that dabbling in the world of military leadership was more than premature and certainly a part of my constant search to fulfill that unremitting drive of a leader within. Today, I can still read a similar version to the letter I wrote to MSG Veals in a journal that I kept sporadically at the time:

“…the path of officership in the United States Army is not God’s Will for me. The most difficult aspect of my realization is that I know I could be an Officer and do great things. I was proud of my actions during [training exercises] and I’m confident that I’d make Sergeant Veals and the Bay State Battalion Proud. But the cadre’s efforts were not in vein. I’ve learned a vast amount about the Army, about being a leader and an American, about being a human being, and finally I’ve learned a lot about myself. As for my plan for the future, it is cloudy. I have come this far in my decision-making, and until the Lord wishes to make it more clear to me, I will simply have to wait.“

The decision I made to quit the pursuit of officership in the United States Army was very similar in nature to abandoning other pursuits in roles of leadership that I would attempt thereafter–from journalism and student leadership to politics and more. I realize now that what appeared to be a flighty demeanor and uncertain attitude, perhaps an inability or unwillingness to commit to the military, was a product of a quiet force within me that I had not yet heard or come to fully realize. That quiet force was my true nature.

As most learning experiences go, we cannot always fully understand them until they have long since passed. Here on DaveUrsillo.com, I harp on about following your gut and your instincts, and the importance of trusting and acting on your heart over what logic might dictate. The reason I advocate trusting the voice inside of you is because it is seldom wrong–even if we are unable to understand why it tells us what it does for years and years. As far as my months in the Army ROTC went, the voice inside of me said that sometimes, we need to stay the path: relentless, fearless and refusing to quit, just like our proud patriots in uniform who serve us. But other times, the right decision is a much harder decision: when you know that you need to walk away.

It is May 2007. A close friend informs me that an upperclassman we had trained with as freshmen, Ryan P. Jones, had been killed in action in Baghdad. I quietly stand from my computer and walk out of the room, barely reaching the stairwell at the end of the hall before I break down.

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The extent to which the modern economic recession has disproportionately impacted the rising American generation–”Generation Y” or the “Millennial” generation–by way of disproportionately high unemployment and underemployment threatens to widely distend the ordinary window of time through which members of any rising generation can socially and professionally develop into formative positions of influence and leadership.

During such desperate times of foreign and domestic struggle, the dangerous and plausible consequence is that next generation of American leaders in the Millennial demographic–upon whose shoulders the conceivable survival or demise of the country ultimately rests–will be all the more disadvantaged in their rise to ever-important ranks of leadership in the United States, and to the plausible detriment of the entire free world.

What may result is a “Generation Y leadership gap,” or a distended period of time during which there is a noticeable deficit of influential leaders from Generation Y that would have ordinary and more immediately followed those of the Baby Boomer generation and Generation X, in subsequent order.

To avoid what could become a destructive deficit of leadership during some of the most significant and determinative decades in America’s history, young members of Generation Y will today be all the more compelled to press themselves to rise to positions of respectable influence among their generation and quickly achieve the respect of the aging American generations. As a nation, we will be obligated to forge relationships of respect and teamwork, for neither Generation Y nor the Baby Boomers will be able to minimize the impact and consequences of modern economic and foreign struggles alone.

The Forthcoming Gen-Y Leadership Gap

The effects of the modern economic recession on an entire generation of rising Americans could last upwards of an entire decade. The plausible consequence is that Generation Y–the next group of American leaders–will be starting that much further behind in their rise to positions of influence in America, which are going to be so important to the direction of the country during difficult times of trial, struggle and desperation.

Because the depth and magnitude of the modern recession is so disproportionately impacting members of Generation Y, and on the brink of their rise into full adulthood, those who consider themselves to be leading members of the generation must work all the harder to rise from the depths of these troubling times in order to forge working relationships with the parent generation, the Baby Boomers, to begin a new and cooperative union or what New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman calls, a “Re-Generation.”

Although unemployment and underemployment have so drastically and disproportionately disadvantaged recent college graduates and members of Generation Y, Millennials have at their disposal a wide array of unique tools, including the power and potency of instantaneous communication to a wide audience through social media, to overcome the deficit of upward social and professional mobility and in order to attain a status similar to that of conventional career influence.

The question, of course, is to what extent the Great Recession will impact and distend the ordinary window of time that would allow this generation of young American adults to progress at a “normal” pace to positions of influence and leadership in the workplace and realms of public service. Undoubtedly, the next generation of American leaders will have a significant impact on the direction of the United States and the entirety of the free world. It depends on Generation Y to rise to the occasion–in spite of the turmoil and tumult that will disproportionately disadvantaged them for years to come.

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There I sat, alone on a green leather-bound chair in the corner of a small waiting area in the Lower West Wing of the White House. Outside, the heat and humidity were as characteristically oppressive as can be in July in Washington, D.C.

In between my long, awestruck stares at photographs on the walls of then-President George W. Bush alongside foreign dignitaries and other political movers and shakers, I smiled nervously at passersby, none of whom I recognized but all of whom, I was sure, had greater stature and status than indicated by their simple, professional dress.

In the field of politics, wherein appearance is everything, exuding confidence is one of your greatest benefactors; even when you’re a lowly, 22-year-old unpaid intern. But exhibiting that desired, stone-cold demeanor is hardly as easy as it sounds when you’re just steps outside of the Oval Office and attempting to prepare physically, mentally and emotionally to interview for a vacant position in the Office of the Staff Secretary — especially when it was requested just forty minutes prior.

Those Were the District Days

By late July, I had spent two full months as an intern at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Those District days in the summer of 2008 were blisteringly hot in the nation’s capital, and they must have felt even hotter to the few remaining loyalists of the President’s as his much criticized, eight-year tenure began to draw to an end.

The Administration’s conclusion was certainly in sight, but it had more legs than the few weeks remaining on my internship. As I tried to get a sense for what jobs would be available at summer’s end, a fellow Holy Cross alum emailed me to ask of my interest in a coming vacancy in her office, the Office of the Staff Secretary. Of course I would be interested, I told her.

A couple of weeks passed without any news of the job vacancy or interview. Then, one Wednesday afternoon at around three o’clock I received a phone call on our office hard line. It was a younger guy from Staff Sec, whose name I want to say was Jeremy. “We would love to have you come in for an interview this afternoon,” he told me. Awesome, I thought to myself, what time? “We have an opening in our schedule in about 40 minutes,” Jeremy said.

No Time to Spare…

I immediately began to hope that the lack of time to prepare for the interview would mean a lack of time to worry about it, too. Not the case. Less than an hour later, I sat quietly in that side room in the Lower West Wing attempting to exude some form of confidence in front of the passersby, but coming up noticeably short.

Minutes passed before Jeremy, who had called me only forty minutes prior, greeted me and invited me in. The younger members of Staff Sec hosted me for a short, preliminary group interview, during which I felt more like a contestant for a reality show than a candidate for a job. Questions came from every corner of the room and without logical progression. After each answer, the inquisitors would give awkwardly long, silent glances to each other one by one, as if communicating in a way that I wasn’t aware existed.

One of their questions was, “What do you do for fun?” I paused for a moment, trying to remember what exactly I enjoyed doing in that foreign city, devoid of my family and closest friends. “Well,” I replied, “I really like baseball… the Red Sox.” Another awkward pause and series of glances around the room had me wondering what the issue was, exactly. The informal interview rolled on, but the real interview, I was told, was coming with the Staff Secretary himself, Raul Yanes.

“How do you feel about Manny?”

Raul looked like a younger man than you might expect as a Presidential Appointee charged with filtering and managing all communications and documents intended for the President of the United States. He appeared to be in his late 40′s, had dark hair, and a warm and inviting presence about him. As we sat in his office, one floor below that of the Vice President, Staff Secretary Yanes began to run his eyes over my resume and ask typical interview questions. I responded with typical interview answers.

Then, Raul posed a unique question that wasn’t inspired by that one-page synopsis of my life, work experiences and academic accomplishments. “How do you feel about Manny?” he asked bluntly.

In the summer of 2008, Manny Ramirez, the popular left fielder for the Boston Red Sox, was rumored to be on the trading block after another year full of off-field and on-field incidents spurred the Boston baseball team to shop the All-Star slugger to others around the league. The question caught me off guard; but with a nervous smile, I concluded that Raul could have only been told of my baseball affiliation for one reason: he must have been a Yankees fan.

“You can have him,” I jokingly quipped, sending Raul into laughter. Manny would be a free agent in the off season, and the baseball world was abuzz as to whether the New York Yankees would sign the slugger to a mega contract. Raul and I began to discuss baseball, the season to date and trade rumors in depth, abandoning the usual tension and “fakeness” of job interviews. It was a genuinely fun experience, and one that alleviated the stress and worry that had built within me in that span of 40 minutes.

The series of interviews at Staff Sec concluded a full two hours after they began. I was relieved, though exhausted, and confident of my chances at getting the job. The next couple of weeks passed by quickly. The trade deadline in Major League Baseball had come to pass as well, and Manny Ramirez was no longer a member of the Boston Red Sox. I received a phone call late one afternoon. It was Staff Sec. Jeremy told me that while I was one of two finalists for the job, he regretted to inform me that they offered the job to another candidate.

“No offense but, if you didn’t get the job…”

There is something truly special about connecting with someone on a personal level in the field of politics, maybe because it seems to happen so rarely. Politics is like business, but the business is people. And there’s something naturally unsettling when real people are treated only like figures, tools and profit.

But when a guy like Raul Yanes — an important man with status who had every reason in the world to be stressed beyond comprehension, tense beyond belief, and frankly, a total asshole just because he could — shatters that mold, it’s something you never forget, especially when you’re just a 22-year-old unpaid intern. People like Raul become a testament to the goodness of humanity, those rare gems in the crowds who, in spite of the dirty and deceitful game of politics, are so damn good on the inside that they shine on in your memories for as long as you live.

Weeks later, my internship at the White House would end. As luck would have it, I began to apply for jobs in early autumn as the national economy began to implode. One interview I managed to obtain was at a firm in Virginia that specialized in writing proposals for federal funding and grants. I sat at a round table surrounded by similarly-aged employees, who, like Raul, scoured quickly across my resume and began to ask me questions.

One young man noticed that in my list of recent accomplishments I had written, “Interviewed for position at Office of the Staff Secretary in the West Wing of the White House.” Puzzled, he paused before asking, “No offense… but, if you didn’t get the job… why would you list it as an accomplishment?” A million thoughts and memories, much like the ones detailed here, rushed through my head. With a slight smile I looked up to the young man and thought to myself, How much time do you have?

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The skies pierce in powdery Blue. Cloud floats in Grays and Whites as if from billowing stacks and children look in wonder of what cities were like.

Once-free men decry the woeful Yellow sun that shines brightly only to more clearly reveal the Brown mud and murk of the ever-empowered Elected, the ones who have betrayed us.

Oh, we have survived. But devoid of the White light of freedom, when minds are engulfed in such horrid Blackness, we oft ponder Life’s worth…”

Copenhagen’s Cries for a New World Order

The resounding failure to reach an international agreement that might help curtail anthropogenic global warming at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference of 2009 stirred some rallying cries from Britain to Canada for the creation of new world order that, theoretically, would prevent future diplomatic clashes between nations and allow a better process of dialogue on vital international issues. For example, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown boldly proclaimed:

“Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries. One of the frustrations for me was the lack of a global body with the sole responsibility for environmental stewardship.”

As vital as the preservation of the global ecosystem is to humanity and to future generations, free men and women should find it both sinister and dangerous that governments worldwide may be willing to collectively conspire to take heavy-handed measures to curtain the ever-controversial issue of anthropogenic global warming. Or, they should, if the feasibility of global governance weren’t an utter myth.

Origins of the European Union

Earlier this week, I published a historical essay entitled, “Origins of the European Union” that investigates the motivations of the international agreements between European states after World War II and that eventually led to the creation of the modern European Union.

Through the lens of political science study of International Relations, my findings indicate that international unions of sovereign nations, like the European Union and its precursor organizations, are only likely to unite when nations involved find individual self-interest as the primary motivation to join the union. Further, nations’ self-interest tends to be primarily motivated by national security and self-preservation. Ironically, though, states’ refusal to sacrifice their individual sovereignty is also the major hindrance to further international integration within organizations like the European Union:

“While security was the causal factor of early European Union, it has also hindered further attempts at European Integration. Numerous attempts to develop a common defense and foreign policy have failed because states refuse to relinquish their individual, sovereign rights that allow them to determine their own security policies.”

But, an important question remains. Could global warming be considered enough for a national security issue for countries across the globe to lead to the creation of a new world order?

The Telegraph’s Janet Daley astutely draws connections between Gordon Brown’s rather desperate, “don’t-blame-me” suggestion for a new world order and a rash of criticisms with the European Union, both at its founding and today:

“…would [the new world government] have powers of policing and enforcement that would supersede the authority of elected national governments? In effect, this was the infamous “democratic deficit” of the European Union elevated on to a planetary scale. And if the EU model is anything to go by, then the agencies of global authority will involve vast tracts of power being handed to unelected officials. Forget the relatively petty irritations of Euro‑bureaucracy: welcome to the era of Earth-bureaucracy, when there will be literally nowhere to run.”

As the origins of the European Union indicate, even when countries’ national security is an utmost priority (as when upon the heels of two world wars and a plausible third) states still refuse to sacrifice their sovereign right to control law and order within their borders, and especially when it comes to self-determining foreign policy.

Is Global Warming Enough of a Security Concern?

Even with the distinctively “global” problem of anthropogenic global warming, the premise of self-interest as the determining factor in international cooperation remains: Developing nations such as China and India will wholly refuse to curtail greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution at the expense of their sovereign right to industrially develop and modernize — especially when it is hypocritically beckoned by Western, post-industrial nations who are not only modernized but solely caused the very environmental issues they are looking for the entire world to take responsibility for, and ultimately solve.

Even in the wake of the failed Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, the myth of global governance ends with the realization that a new world order would never be voluntarily given member-states’ sovereign rights — even if humanity’s very survival is on the line.