When was the last time you felt good about American military power?

I’ll answer that: the closing of the Osama bin Laden file.

We’ll never see the video of that operation, but we can imagine. A team of warriors who are better trained than any soldiers on the planet. Coordination so slick they seem to be reading each other’s minds. Brutal efficiency with every kind of weapon.

And when the killing’s done?

Poof. They vanish.

No medals. Not even any identifying marks on their uniform.

In 2006, a company from Special Ops/Delta Force became a CBS TV series: “The Unit.”

“We’re so accustomed to seeing war told through the eyes of soldiers who are far away and the families left behind,” said one of the show’s producers, Shawn Ryan. “Delta Force guys live at home, get sent out on these missions, and they come back. They’re almost commuter warriors, and you don’t really see that portrayed much anywhere.”

The other producer was David Mamet, the playwright who uses four-letter words like building blocks. But not here.  This was network TV—big money, big audience, their rules. With only one from Mamet: “Only tell those stories which are told in the half-hour before closing time.”

“The Unit” shows more than the sudden trips out of the country (sometimes to Afghanistan, it seems, but never to Iraq). These guys are married, sometimes uneasily. Their wives don’t quite know what their men do. They’re smart enough not to press for answers. And everybody is committed to keeping the cover story going.

What makes this show inspire patriotism is the oldest truth about the military. The Unit’s assignments may protect America. But what binds these elite soldiers together is their commitment to their brothers in arms. Because, in the crunch, they’re all they’ve got. Don’t we wish we could say the same about our colleagues?

Feel like getting excited? Watch this (and crank the sound.)

“The Unit” ran for four seasons and 69 episodes before CBS pulled the plug. Now you can see it on Sunday nights at 11 PM on some local station. The wife and I never miss it—an hour with actual heroes is a great way to roll into a new week.

Or you could buy a collection of the entire series—3,000 minutes—from Amazon for $77.

For a “real” man (and the woman who loves him), I can think of no better present.

“Fired up. Feels good. Here we go. On the move.”

I get chills.