Earlier this week, I visited two soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital who had been injured in Iraq. It was the second time I went to see California servicemen and women at the hospital, and I fear that I will have many more opportunities to return in the weeks and months ahead.

I could not have been more impressed with the indomitable spirit of those I met. Pvt. Reed Rosenkranz of Pittsburg had been in the Army for only six months when he was sent to Iraq. His convoy was attacked in the early evening while returning from securing a power plant east of Baghdad. A rocket-propelled grenade was fired inside the passenger window of his Humvee, hit the radio and exploded. He lost his right eye, and shrapnel injured his legs. Another passenger lost his left eye. Three others in the car — two fellow soldiers and one translator — were not so fortunate, and were all killed.

Reed's mother, visiting her son in the hospital, showed the weariness of worry over her son, but also great pride in his bravery and service. She told me that the Iraqi that fired on her son's convoy was part of Saddam Hussein's special forces. He had been interviewed by the newspapers and later captured.

Pvt. Rosenkranz explained to me that he enlisted in the Army in January at 25, because he wanted to serve his country in a time of need. "The whole Sept. 11 thing" made him want to do his part. "I feel lucky to be alive," he told me, holding his young wife in the hospital room. He showed no regret for having served, and no anger over his injuries. He merely looked forward to continuing his education, and making use of his skill with computers.

Sgt. Erick Castro Rodriquez of Santa Ana was fired on by Iraqis armed with a Russian-made projectile that shot a rod of steel through his vehicle. His leg was later amputated, as was the leg of another soldier hit in the same attack. Still another soldier had his leg amputated by the projectile itself.

"This is one of those bumps in the road that you meet in life, and you just have to get past it," the sergeant told me.

I'm not sure where they find these men and women, but our armed forces are filled with them. They are brave, dedicated, uncomplaining, devoted to our country and willing to sacrifice.

When I recently visited our troops in Iraq, I met many more of the same smart and courageous young soldiers. Whether it was the First Marine Expeditionary Force in the south, the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, or the Fourth Infantry Division in Tikrit, these soldiers were operating under the most extreme conditions — 130-degree heat, frequent enemy fire, improvised explosive devices along the roadside and long deployments.

"I'm an artilleryman," one Army captain told me as we left a hospital in Baghdad. "I was trained to fight large mechanized armies on the open battlefield. We weren't trained for this. I looked at my training photos the other day and there wasn't a single building in any of them. But we're learning, we're adapting well and we're getting the job done."

These soldiers are tough.

"What do you do when you're not in Tikrit fighting bad guys?" I asked one Army reserve private.

"I install computers at Pepperdine University," she told me. Imagine, going from installing computers at beautiful Pepperdine to Saddam Hussein's hometown and one of the most dangerous places in Iraq.

My colleagues and I flew in C-130 troop transport planes into Baghdad, making combat landings with steep vertical declines to avoid the shoulder-fired missiles they have been shooting at our planes. To get around inside the country, we traveled in Blackhawk helicopters or heavily armed convoys, our security detail always on guard for explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.

In the evenings when we returned to Kuwait, I spent my time calling the families of the soldiers I met during the day. I spoke to mothers, brothers, husbands and wives — sharing news of their loved ones ("he looks good," "she's eating well," "his spirits are strong") and extending my gratitude for the sacrifice the families are sharing.

I joined a similar congressional delegation to Afghanistan around the time of Operation Anaconda. Then, as now, it gave me a chance to assess the true conditions on the ground, what our soldiers face and whether they are getting the tools and supplies they need to complete their mission, without the filter of the Pentagon.

And equally important, it gave me the chance to thank all of them for their dedication to duty. I thanked them for me, and knowing you would want me to, I passed along the thanks and gratitude of my constituents, as well.

The war in Iraq has been extremely divisive here at home, and has also divided the world community. Our failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq thus far has been deeply troubling, and our intelligence-gathering process needs thorough and unbiased investigation. Gen. Zinni's pointed observation that the dedication of our troops was not matched by the quality of our planning rings all too true.

But the men and women of our armed forces are deserving of our unqualified support. Many of us were struck by the designation of the generation that served during World War II as the greatest generation. As my father was in the Army during that war, I felt a similar bias.

One visit to Walter Reed Hospital or to our troops overseas, however, is enough to disabuse anyone of the notion that any generation of fighting men and women could exceed the quality of today's soldier. These remarkable young people are simply as fine as they could be.