• Sarah Palin, mother of five children has not served in
uniform but has a son enlisted in the U.S. army

• Sarah Palin's 19-year old son Track was assigned to an
infantry brigade and deployed in September 2008 for twelve months
to one of the most dangerous corners of Iraq.

• Palin had donned the role of Commander-in-Chief of the
4,200-member Alaska National Guard when she was the state's
Governor.  Though she has not fought in combat, Palin's two years
of military command experience as Commander-in-Chief of Alaska
National Guard has made her keenly aware of how her military
decisions or the decisions she influenced would affect the men
and women serving in the armed forces. 

• Alaska is the first line of defense in the missile
interceptor defense system. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of
the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire
nation from ballistic missile attacks.

• As the Governor of Alaska, Palin was briefed on highly
classified military issues, homeland security, counter terrorism
and is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital
to the entire country's defense. Her exposure to classified
material is pretty high compared to her rivals.
		

• President Barack Obama has not served in the military but
has a family of war veterans with impressive military records.

• His grandfather, the late Stanley Dunham served in
combat and "marched in Patton's Army" while his grandmother
"worked on a bomber assembly line".

• Obama's uncle was part of the American brigade that
helped liberate Auschwitz concentration camps.

• Obama's claim that his grandfather had got himself
enlisted in the Army the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, is
contradicted by Army records that show Stanley Dunham had signed
up six months after Pearl Harbor.

• During a Memorial Day speech in New Mexico, Obama
remarked "I cannot know what it is to walk into battle like so
many of you" and "I cannot know what it is for a family to
sacrifice like so many of yours have."

• The military was "an ennobling... honorable option" for
Obama. During his teen years in Hawaii, Obama enjoyed attending
the parties at Army bases and had once considered serving in
uniform as well.

• He confided about having to sign up for Selective
Service when he graduated from High School in 1979.
Unfortunately, the Vietnam War had come to an end and "we weren't
engaged in an active military conflict at that point", thus
ending Obama's desire to pursue the military option.