I’ll never forget the first time I was thankful — truly thankful — for National Review. I’d loved NR for a long time, going back to my early teen years when an inquisitive young conservative first discovered the wide, wonderful world of conservative thought. In the years that followed, my appreciation only deepened. On our side of the aisle, no other publication combined the essays, the hard reporting, and the quick hits of National Review.

(Yes, this is my appeal for you to support our webathon, so if you want to donate now and skip my heartfelt words, feel free to do so!)

But my love for NR became personal and deeply meaningful when I deployed to Iraq. There, I saw the gap between the mainstream media reporting of the Surge and the reality on the ground. I experienced the frustration of knowing that public opinion was being shaped by partial information and half-truths.

I reached out to National Review. I’d been contributing to NR’s “Phi Beta Cons” blog in my civilian capacity as a First Amendment attorney, but I didn’t know many of the NR staff. I hadn’t met Rich Lowry. I didn’t know Jack Fowler. But I sent an email to Kathryn Lopez — the immortal K-Lo — from a freezing-cold tent Diyala Province, Iraq, and asked if she would like the rest of the story.

And so I published my first pieces on NRO, and from January 2008 until late September when I flew home, I periodically checked in. I tried my best to refute leftist propaganda about detainees, to tell stories of heroism that would be lost to history, and to fill in the gaps of mainstream-media reporting.

Honestly, reading them now, the pieces aren’t that great. The writing is pretty rough. But it made a difference. I’ll never forget one young soldier telling me that his family had printed my piece, framed it, and hung it over the mantle as a testimony to what their son had done. When it was time for me to redeploy back home, to go off active duty and resume my civilian life, my commander shook my hand and said — with emotion — “Thank you for telling our story.”

Thank you, National Review. You told our story then, and you keep telling the right stories now. When the rest of the media looks away, National Review looks closer. And when the Left says “move on,” NR of course says “stop.” There’s more to see.

It’s been my great joy and privilege to join National Review full-time, to keep telling the stories America needs to hear. This year, we broke the personal stories of Wisconsin’s “John Doe” raid victims — the stories of men, women, and children who where subjected to terrifying police raids simply because they were conservative activists or part of an activist’s family. We’ve told the stories of Iraqi Christian refugees who were fleeing for their lives after America threw away victory and turned its back on its allies. And we’ve told those stories while our writers have consistently produced the best — and often most entertaining — conservative commentary in the world.

But we can’t tell those stories or write those essays without you — without your subscription to our print magazine (the widest-circulation political journal in the United States, by the way) or your donation during our pledge drive. You keep us going. You make our work possible. On this Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for National Review, so that means I’m thankful for you — our readers, friends, and supporters. You’ve been there for us before. Be there for us again.

— David French is an attorney and a staff writer at National Review.