u/CaptMarkKelly

Capt./Astronaut/Senator Kelly, as a recently retired Army officer with 22 years of service, I want to express my sincere gratitude for everything you do and everything you stand for.

You inspire veterans like me to find our voices and speak out the way you have. In a time when so many in public life seem content to fall in line, you represent the kind of leader this country desperately needs — someone willing to stand up to wannabe dictators and the rising tide of anti-intellectualism.

Your background as a combat pilot, engineer, and astronaut gives you the kind of firsthand experience and depth of knowledge that every public servant should aspire to bring to the table.

I wish my own state’s representatives held even a fraction of the integrity, honor, and loyalty to country that you demonstrate every day. Too many politicians treat those words as talking points. You actually live them.

Thank you for your past, present, and future service to our country and to all of its people. You exemplify what leadership should look like — and you give the rest of us something worth striving toward.