We all know by now that Barack Obama has inspired a nation.

But how much has he inspired the U.S. military – a voting bloc whose active-duty and retired members are traditionally conservative and Republican, and often from the very reddest parts of America? Today’s military includes women, soldiers of color – and other members who have advanced through the ranks.

"I think there has been a true generational shift in the U.S. military,” CNN correspondent Barbara Starr reported today from Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.

Starr said she watched the troops’ reactions throughout the day as election results came in. And much of what she saw came as a bit of a surprise.

“What we’re really seeing here is some of the youngest members of the U.S. military — very emotionally reacting to the election of Barack Obama as their new commander in chief,” Starr said.

One black soldier, who Starr spoke to last night after Obama was declared the White House winner, seemed deeply moved.

“America spoke loud and clear tonight and tonight we have a president of the United States who is an African American. I can’t help but feel emotional because it erases so much suffering throughout the years and now it speaks loud about what our future is,” this soldier said.

“I can honestly say today the statement that all men are created equal. Everybody cannot help but hear what America has said tonight – that everybody is created equal and I’m proud to be part of that nation.”

It was thought that John McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, would get a large chunk of the military vote.

But no doubt, the endorsement of President Bush’s former Secretary of State, retired Gen. Colin Powell, helped Obama quite a bit.

Several attendees at an October 19 rally in Fayetteville, NC, broke into cheers when they heard about the endorsement.

“We were just overwhelmed by it,” Valarie Benford, a former Army specialist who said her husband is an active-duty solder at Fort Bragg in Texas, told the Dallas Morning News. In an Obama administration, she added, “We’re going to look out for the soldiers, we’re going to get this war done, and we’re going to get our troops home.”

Obama’s wife, Michelle, also heavily courted military families for months on the campaign trail.

Austin Tice, who describes himself as a “typical liberal Democrat,” took a leave of absence from law school in 2005 to get a commission in the Marine Corps. In August he returned from a combat tour in Anbar, Iraq, as an infantry officer with 1st platoon, Echo Co., 2/24 Marines, a reserve unit based in Des Moines.

Now a captain select in the Individual Ready Reserve, The Army Times reports, he’s also a member of a group called Protect the Vote, and he manned a poll in Norfolk, VA, to look for voter interference.

"The war in Iraq for me is the most important issue,” he told The Army Times. “My feeling is America has accomplished our mission there. So I personally would like to see more emphasis placed on Afghanistan and finding bin Laden.”

On Obama, he said: “I think, like a lot of Americans, I see a little of myself in him … He’s thoughtful and articulate and I think that will do the country a lot of good.”