VETERANS DAY: America's Military Heroes Are Badass, And We'll Never Apologize For It

Today is Veterans Day, and it's the perfect opportunity to crack a beer and raise a toast to all those who wore the American flag and fought for freedom.

One of the main pillars of OutKick is that people working here and certainly the people consuming the site believe America is by far and away the best country on the planet. No other nation comes close to touching the red, white and blue. That's how I feel, that's how you almost definitely feel and you'll never hear me apologize for it. Reach out to David.Hookstead@outkick.com with your thoughts.

Well, we also all know that our incredible country and lifestyles didn't just appear out of thin air. Freedom has a price, and it's paid every day by the men and women who signed the dotted line willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for you, me and everyone else in this beautiful country we call home.

Our military has never been afraid to pick up weapons and fight when it's necessary. We beg for peace. America pleads for peace, but we will smash any enemy face with extreme violence if it's the only option we're left with.

When that phone rings and the signal goes off, men and women who have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedoms deploy all over the world to take the fight to the enemy. That's what Veterans Day is all about.

U.S. soldiers storm Omaha Beach on D-Day. (Credit: Public domain, U.S. Coast Guard)

Veterans Day is an opportunity to honor the great American military.

There are plenty of examples of American exceptionalism and our military kicking ass like it's going out of style.

When the British refused to leave our land, farmers and regular people picked up muskets and beat the most well-funded, well-armed and well-trained military the world had ever seen.

When Europe needed to be liberated in WWI, American men armed with 12 gauge shotguns jumped in those trenches and obliterated the enemy in a fashion the world had never seen before. American soldiers were so effective at close range after WWI that countries wanted shotguns banned from war. Fortunately, they are not.

Decades later as the Nazis swept across Europe and the Japanese took over Asia, America was, once again, called on to save freedom.

Young American men armed with M1 rifles and Thompson submachine guns stormed the beaches of Normandy and dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day to let the Europeans know the day of the liberation had started. Instead of going to college or getting a job, our young men were fighting for complete strangers in a country they didn't understand or speak the language of.

When the Germans threw the kitchen sink at are men during the Battle of the Bulge, the outnumbered and out-supplied airborne troops held the line against seemingly impossible odds and broke the back of Hitler's war machine.

There are plenty of GWOT veterans among us.

Personally, the one that always sticks out to me is the Global War on Terror. I was in 4th grade when 9/11 happened, and it had a monumental impact on me. Instead of growing up watching shows meant for kids, I watched news updates constantly about the wars, and was addicted to Black Hawk Down and "Band of Brothers."

Delta Force operators in Afghanistan after 9/11. (Credit: Wiki commons/Public Domain/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1st_Special_Forces_Operational_Detachment-Delta_(Airborne)#/media/File:Delta_force_GIs_disguised_as_Afghan_civilians,_November_2001_C.jpg)

I know a lot of Tier One men who did things you can't imagine. They chased Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora, killed thousands of Al-Qaeda fighters all over the world, eventually killed Bin Laden in Pakistan and went toe-to-toe with terrorists wherever they were foolish enough to test us.

Speed. Surprise. Violence of action.

You don't know what it means to be badass until you hear what guys from Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 and other Tier One elements did during the GWOT in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other places they're not overly eager to discuss for security reasons. As one former Delta operator once told me, it was like Disney World every day chasing terrorists.

Veterans Day isn't meant to be sad. It's a day to celebrate the millions of men and women over the course of America's history that were willing to die for the red, white and blue. Memorial Day is when we honor those who never made it home, and we can also still certainly think about them today.

However, today isn't just a happy day. It's a day where we remember just how awesome and epic our armed forces are. If that's not a great excuse to crack a beer and raise a toast to the flag, then I don't know what is. There's so many incredible veterans walking around, and most people don't even know it. Trust me, I'll be toasting to all my friends today and I'll be doing it more than once.

As I always close out every Veterans Day piece with, I'll say what I said last year. Freedom has a high price, and it's a price the USA has always paid. Our service members have fought for it, died for it and killed for it. Do not test our resolve. You will lose.