The very first songs I ever bought on the Apple iTunes store for my second-generation iPod Nano were Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” and “American Soldier.”

The two songs have always held a special place in my heart for most of my life. When I made that purchase with an iTunes gift card I bought with cash at the grocery store, I was a skinny 12-year-old child who grew up in a military family. My first real memory of a major news event was 9/11, but because I was so young, I didn’t quite understand or remember the wave of patriotism that swept the country at the time.