Wandering the web, I ran across this post at Mudville Gazette.

Go read it, about Army National Guard Sgt Stayton, who once upon a time was Maj Stayton in the Air National Guard, a USAF Academy grad and fighter pilot, until he left the military to spend time with his family and build up his law practice.

Today he’s a platoon leader in Iraq, because after 9/11 he felt the need to give some more back to his country than he had already given us with his previous service.

On a trip to his summer home in Arkansas in 2002, he stopped at an Army National Guard armory in Arkadelphia, where a recruiter listened to Sergeant Stayton’s story and promised him a spot if he passed a physical exam. That was easy for Sergeant Stayton, a stocky, muscular man with cropped graying hair. After nearly a year of bureaucratic snarls during which the Guard lost his records twice, Sergeant Stayton finally took his oath of service in June 2003 and reported for two weeks of annual training.

What’s amazing to me is not that that Sgt Stayton is over in Iraq, giving back to his country again. I’m amazed because the paper where Greyhawk found the article was none other than the New York Times (registration required).

Thank you, Sgt Stayton, for your service, both then and now.