Among those raised to the saddle, the word cowboy is always one of such honor that it is used with great care,

Through the Service to America Medals, we give the best within government their due respect, and honor them for making a very real difference in the lives of people across our country and around the world. There is nothing more critical to government's success than attracting the best and brightest to serve.

I wanted to share the story of my own experiences as a cowboy kid,

He brought back some photos of a Navajo rodeo. There were some rather marvelous shots of children and we discussed doing a story about cowboy kids. Before I committed to this, I wanted to make sure he meant to record the totality of cowboy kids: male and female, girls and boys, ... As a test, I sent him off to see some pretty tough old ranchers and he just kept going so I thought we could do this.

The Apache and others who fought the great cavalry battles took the cavalry's horses and methods and improved on them. These great horse warrior tribes are now cowboys and they naturally raise their young to be cowboy kids.

That was in no way meant to diminish the honor received by the band. We have to explore the issue from all angles, especially an issue as important as our students going overseas.