On Memorial Day, in addition to remembering American soldiers who gave their lives for their country, many Americans will be firing up their outdoor grills for what has become the traditional start of the grilling season.

But do we know how to make this traditional American holiday a truly all-American one? It's actually quite easy. All we need to do is simply support American companies that make their products in the USA. After all, American companies and American workers make our military stronger by paying the taxes, which go to providing funding to defend freedom at home and abroad.

American companies pay nearly twice as many taxes to America compared to foreign owned companies, and workers in foreign countries don't pay any taxes to America - only American workers do.

So whether you're staying home for a backyard cookout or traveling this Memorial Day, here's a checklist of American products and services to patronize that will truly make your Memorial Day an all-American one.

For starters, you'll want to fire up a Weber grill, since Weber is an American company that makes all of their grills in the United States.

American Owned	Foreign owned	Foreign Nationality
Tyson Foods Chicken	Pilgrim's Pride Chicken	Brazil
Dasani Bottled Water	Dannon Bottled Water	French
Ocean Spray Juice	Libby's Juicy Juice	Swiss
Arizona Iced Tea	Lipton Iced Tea	Unilever*
Pepperidge Farms	Entenmann's	Canada
Blue Bell Ice Cream	Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream	Unilever*
Heinz Mustard	French's Mustard	UK
Wonder Bread	Arnold Bread	Canada
Hunts Pasta Sauce	Contadina Pasta Sauce	Swiss
Seven Seas Salad Dressing	Wish-Bone Salad Dressing	*Unilever

*Unilever is a joint venture between England and The Netherlands.

If you're traveling this Memorial Day, here's a list of American-owned services to patronize along the way...

American Owned	Foreign owned	Foreign Nationality
Super 8 Motels	Motel 6	French
Hampton Inn	Holiday Inn	UK
Chevron Gasoline	Citgo Gasoline	Venezuela
Racetrac Convenience Stores	7-Eleven Convenience Stores	Japan

If your car or truck needs new tires for the trip, why not patronize Goodyear or Cooper, the only two remaining American-owned tire companies? Foreign companies like Michelin/BF Goodrich (French owned), Bridgestone/Firestone (Japanese owned) and Continental (German owned) make tires here too, but they send their profits to their overseas headquarters to reward foreign owners, investors, and stockholders. By supporting American-made products from American-owned companies, we keep jobs, profits and the tax base right here in America.

Let's honor all Americans who served in the military, the ones who returned as well as the ones who didn't, by supporting the companies based in the country they were fighting for - the United States of America.

Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism. He also writes "Buy American Mention of the Week" articles for his website www.howtobuyamerican.com and is a member of the Machinists Union and National Writers Union. Roger has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report among many other publications, and is now a weekly contributor to WorldNetDaily.

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