Busch grants free admission for service members, families

It's about time that someone shows a way to sta "thanks" to the men and women who live and fight for us!

Well if you read the article you'd see that they've been doing it for years. Besides, they're not fighting for us, they're fighting for Bush, and for that they deserve a hell of a lot more than a free day at a theme park. They deserve ten times the pay, and some decent freakin' health care since they're being totally blown off by the feds in that area.

One word: "Soapbox".

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Besides, they're not fighting for us, they're fighting for Bush

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Haha, at first I read that as a sarcastic comment referring to Busch instead of Bush, thinking somehow beer was at stake in this war.... but now that I un-crossed my eyes, I agree with Jeff! :)

This is good for me, my dad is in the Navy and he loves takin me to theme parks and watchin me ride roller coasters so I hope this will get me down to Busch Gardens Williamsburg (I live in DC and SFA isn't in the best of shape). and since my dad pretty much does anything that has the word FREE in it we probably will...were not the most financially stable family so thank you Anheuser-Busch!

I feel like I should be saying sorry, not thank you.

I do think its nice.

I will use it at both Busch Gardens parks, and yes, it's been going on at least since 9/11, becuase I have used it at three other park (dad is a retired military personnel). Oh, and no one has been drafted in 30 years, everyone chose to sign up, just some folks didn't realize that joining means that in times of war they may be needed. Bush takes the blame too much :(

Anyway, that argument is for another day.

*applause* Well said, RamblinWreck. That's something that most people on the Bush-is-treating-servicepeople-horribly soapbox don't realize. Everyone in the military is there on their own free will.

Whatever. I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect that the military pay your medical bills after your tour is done.

And yes, Busch has been doing this since after 9/11. I think they started with local safety forces (police, fire and rescue), and expanded it to military service after Afghanistan. I might be wrong about that. I don't know what the military concentration is near Tampa, but it's obviously huge in Virginia, and DC isn't far away. I bet that's where you'll see the biggest numbers of people taking advantage of that.

Don't forget San Diego, between Coronado Island's huge Navy and Marine contigency, plus all of the Marine and Army Camps in Southern California. They all have pretty large local military populations. They even had a big banner for military personnel at Sea World in SD when I went, but that may hold true for all of the parks.

The National Guard and the Reserves are the ones who don't have alot of benefits since they only get most of the them when they are on active service, although changes have since been made to help them out. Now those of us in the regular army are doin just fine, but it is appreciated. We are an all volunteer force and alot of us have joined after 9/11 knowing that they're was a big reality of being deployed. I don't blame Bush for Iraq, granted I didn't vote for him and may not agree with it, I still have to fulfill my duty to my country. I look forward to heading down to Sea World San Santonio for the first time this year as well since I'm originally from the Northeast.

Yes, there should definitely be more benefits for our service men and women. The problem is too many people have no trouble pointing what someone else should be doing to ensure that, what someone else should be giving up, what other program should be cut (God forbid it should be a program I benefit from).

This doesn't just pertain to military benefits, it seems like no matter the subject, everyone thinks the government should provide it and someone else should pay for it. We can sit smugly knowing our job is complete once we point out what someone else should be doing or how much someone else should be paying.

If you feel strongly that the military benefits should be increased, contact your senator and representative and the White House and let them know. If enough people get on their cases, eventually they do something about it, even if it's only out of fear of losing a few votes.

OK, soapbox is open... watch your step.