This is a tough time to be an American soldier. All the more reason to thank a veteran today.

The war in Iraq is intensifying. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are suddenly resurgent. Some Army and Marine units are being sent back to Iraq for a third or even fourth tour of duty. More National Guard troops are involved in front-line fighting than in any time in recent history.

All that gives this Veterans Day even more meaning and brings home, again, the debt we owe the men and women who volunteer to serve. Their lives are filled with danger; many are paying the ultimate price - their lives.

Against that backdrop, people like Douglas Sloan are all the more inspiring.

The 40-year-old Sloan, a Charlevoix native, died last week in Afghanistan, not long after returning to the Army's 10th Mountain Division, where he had just been promoted from captain to major. He was a rising star in the division and was, friends say, excited about his new job.

Sloan was showing the man who was to replace him as captain the Korengal Valley region of northern Afghanistan when their vehicle was struck by what the Army calls an IED, or improvised explosive device, the kind of weapon that has created so much havoc in Iraq.

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