When my son went to Kuwait before the invasion of Iraq (he was one of the first in), we gave him three beanie babies. One was an American Eagle, I forget what the second was, but the third was a beagle wearing a Kippah (Jewish head covering) with a Jewish star on it.
He knew who he was and what he faced if captured. He also learned that he was liberating the land of our ancestors, Ur and Babylon, as well as 25 million Moslems and Christians and Kurds, and Turks, etc.
If you can’t get some religious and national identify from schools, churches, etc, then you must get it at home. The “Greatest Generation” understood that, but it was reenforced in the schools and churches and synagogues back then.
PS: My father-in-law fought at Iwo Jima, among other island campaigns, with the only Army unit to land in an assault wave, 75th JASCO. Farm-born patriot and still one at 94.
It is the home that makes Americans, or did.
I thank your son for his service.
I thank you for your courage and faith to let him go.