Posted by: adjutant on 11/14/2007 02:00 AM
Updated by: adjutant on 08/31/2011 09:39 PM
Expires: 01/01/2011 12:00 AM
Adjutant's Veteran's Day Tribute
Our detachment Adjutant was asked to speak and participate in several Veteran's Day celebration ceremonies this year. To read a transcript of one of his messages click on read more to the right.
It is an honor to be able to celebrate Veteran's Day with fellow veterans. Veteran's Day is a great day to celebrate, especially with family. And today I am truly celebrating it with family, for we who are gathered here, are truly a family. We veterans are uniquely connected by our many shared memories, our shared service, our shared commitment and sacrifice to our country.
When I was a kid it was easy to remember what a holiday was all about because almost everyone in the country celebrated them as a way of life. Surprisingly, they were also celebrated on the actual date they commemorated. Today it seems society moves them around, sometimes haphazardly to accommodate school calendars, gigantic car and furniture sales, long weekends and personal convenience.
I can't imagine someone telling me I was no longer born on November 9th or that the Marine Corps was not founded on the 10th of November. Now that I've said that, does anyone remember the actual birth dates of Washington, Lincoln or Lee, Jackson or King?
In fact how many of you even know, or remember, that our Veterans Day celebration used to have a different name?
This holiday actually began life as a day to memorialize the beginning of the armistice that ended WWI.
“Armistice Day”, as November 11 was once known, officially became a holiday in the United States in 1926, and was confirmed as a national holiday some 12 years later in 1938. On June 1, 1954, when its name was changed to Veterans Day, it was declared a day to honor all U.S. veterans.
Veterans, this is our day and must never be relegated to the point of just being looked at as a day off of work. It is not merely a day to have a big sale at the Mall or the auto dealership, an excuse to go to the beach or a day to have a Bar-B-Q.
It is and should be a somewhat solemn occasion, a day set aside for memories, for reflection and prayer. Why you ask? I guess it is because, I can think no other way to truly honor men and women who have served the cause of freedom and justice with distinction and who stand in such exclusive company.
I say exclusive company because I place our military veterans and our emergency service workers side by side when it comes to their dedication, commitment and integrity. Our law enforcement officers, fire and rescue service personnel, paramedics and EMT's defend and protect us daily here at home against the seeming endless onslaught of evil, while our military personnel tirelessly train and protect our homeland against attack and invasion from abroad 24/7/365.
All of these men and women have sworn an oath to place themselves in harms way whenever necessary and without a moments hesitation. While none of these patriots train to die, all of them willingly accept the possibility that at any given moment they might be called up on to make the ultimate sacrifice for someone they don't even know.
This principle of substitution was recorded for posterity in the scriptures through the words of
Jesus Christ, when He stated,
“Greater love hath no man, than that he lay down his life for a friend.”
Our veterans are not only willing to lay their lives down for their friends, but they continuously jeopardize them for people they don't even know and for the cause of freedom and a way of life that while it may not be perfect, is second to none.
I served in the active and reserve military for over 42 years 5 months and 12 days: The Army for 4 years, the Air Force for 2 years and The Marine Corps for over 36 years. During my service I saw action in both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf Combat Theaters.
I may not speak about all my experiences very often, even to my family, but I will never forget those years and the memories and lessons they hold. I cannot forget the names or the faces of those who served with me just as many of you cannot forget your unit, your squadron, or your shipmates. These combat forged relationships are the ties that truly bind. The friendships that are tempered through adversity contain memories that will stay in our hearts and minds for the rest of our lives. It has been said before and I find it oh so true,
“that the man, who sheds his blood with me today in battle, is truly my brother.”
And some of our memories are quite naturally going to be of sad times. A number of my friends and brothers never came home
“to the land of the big PX” as we used to call America. But I am sure we all understand that recollection, because I think it is a safe bet that many of your friends or relatives did not come back home either.
They never returned to their see their mothers or fathers or wives or their children. They did not come home to build a house or go back to school or start that new career after they completed their military service. They no longer have the privilege of seeing their American Flag waving proudly against a clear-blue-cloud-dotted sky as you and I can see it wave today. No, They will not march in today's parade or go to today's picnic, but neither will they ever be forgotten.
Yes my friends, remembrance should be the essence of any Veteran's Day celebration. Remembering the good times, the jokes and the laughs we experienced during or military service. Remembering the foul-ups we experienced in training or the close calls we had on leave. Remembering our comrades in arms on the morning of their last day - a day when we shared in the same anxiety, in the same anticipation and in the same commitment to victory. And, of course, remembering the shared feeling of loss and grief when they remained and we returned home. Remembering their families when they received the news and remembering the stoic faces at their grave sites. I want to caution you to never dishonor these fallen comrades by letting that feeling of grief and loss turn to guilt; that will only diminish the sacrifice they were prepared to offer.
Every veteran understands that war is a serious business. War is hell and it is real. It has real costs and makes a real impact on all who serve. You know this is true my brothers and sisters, because we share the same memories and feelings and understand them much better than those who have never served.
Many of us who faced combat think and feel that what we experienced never really needs be shared with others. After all it is our history, our legacy and our experience and we want to remember it as it was not as someone else thinks it might have been or should have been.
But folks, that is just why we must tell our stories and why we must direct our words to those who have not shared our same experience. I encourage you to celebrate Veteran's Day by telling your stories and sharing your history. For with each and every shared memory, we honor our lost comrades and guarantee they will never die.
Because as long as a man lives on in the memory of those who loved him, he lives.
For thousands of years history was recorded and passed along around campfires, at the tavern or around the town square through the tales of experienced and learned storytellers.
Those stories were told, retold and told again. These unpublished historians and balladeers would memorize hours of passages - from the epic poems of the ancient Greeks and the bards of Elizabethan England to the tales of the mountain men and other western heroes.
These historical figures were remembered and worked their way into history because their stories were told and retold and told again, until some of them became larger than life legends.
Today, though, it seems we want to depend on the History channel or scores of magazines and other publications to recount or report on our historical events. But no matter how well these accounts are done, nothing is ever as valid, as impacting or more well received than the first person knowledge of someone who was there.
So I encourage your friends and neighbors and most of all your families to persuade you to tell your stories. And I beseech you not to leave our history to the newspapers; they won't record our history accurately. They'll rewrite it as they see fit, in order to squeeze it into their allotted column inches. No my friends, if you want your past experiences recorded as they really happened then you'll need to share them yourself.
There are other ways of sharing our experiences and honoring our fellow veterans. If you haven't personally visited the many war memorials in our nation, you should consider doing so.
So I'd like to take you on a short virtual tour of some of the monuments in our nations capitol.
First stop, the newest monument to veterans -- the WWII memorial. In case you don't know, the WWII memorial is on the Mall in Washington DC and was dedicated on May 29th 2004. It is located between the Lincoln Memorial and The Washington Memorial along the central axis of the National Mall.
On what is known as the Announcement Stone the message of the WWII Memorial reads as follows:
HERE IN THE PRESENCE OF WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN,
ONE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FATHER AND THE OTHER THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY PRESERVER OF OUR NATION, WE HONOR
THOSE TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICANS WHO TOOK UP THE STRUGGLE DURING
THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND MADE THE SACRIFICES TO PERPETUATE THE
GIFT OUR FOREFATHERS ENTRUSTED TO US:
A NATION CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY AND JUSTICE.
On its flagpoles, the following testament to the American fighting man is carved:
AMERICANS CAME TO LIBERATE, NOT TO CONQUER, TO RESTORE FREEDOM AND TO END TYRANNY
These messages will live for eternity for it was this "Greatest Generation" who literally sprang from their homes to save the world. Over 16 million came from farms, from small towns, from large cities, they came to "join up" and to fight. And fight they did, they fought on islands in the Pacific and in villages in Europe; they fought in the desert, in the skies and in the mountains throughout the world. And over
400,000 died. The veterans of WWII waited a long time for their legacy to be honored. And this memorial accomplishes the task.
The inscriptions on this memorial also honor many who served in specific events or specific roles. These include Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, with the very famous quote from President Franklin Roosevelt, which reads:
A DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY…NO MATTER HOW LONG IT MAY TAKE US TO OVERCOME THIS PREMEDITATED INVASION, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, IN THEIR RIGHTEOUS MIGHT, WILL WIN THROUGH TO ABSOLUTE VICTORY.
We were invaded again on September 11th 2001; I wonder as that date drifts into a recent historical status if we still have the courage of WW II America? Do you hear that same determination echoed today?
NO MATTER HOW LONG IT MAY TAKE
US TO OVERCOME THIS PREMEDITATED INVASION, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,
IN THEIR RIGHTEOUS MIGHT, WILL WIN THROUGH TO ABSOLUTE VICTORY
This country was at war and everyone knew it. Many women chose to leave their homes during WWII, my mother among them, to serve on the factory floor, as
“Rosie the Riveter” became the battle cry for housewives to become factory workers in support of the total war effort. They too are honored with the following inscription of a quote by Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby:
"WOMEN WHO STEPPED UP WERE MEASURED AS CITIZENS OF THE NATION,NOT AS WOMEN…THIS WAS A PEOPLE'S WAR, AND EVERYONE WAS IN IT. "
Do you think that is the way all Americans feel today? As our troops are engaging an elusive and often cowardly, but always dedicated and persevering enemy on foreign shores, here at home many Americans seem to have forgotten that as long as one soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is deployed to a conflict on foreign shores, all Americans are still at war.
To those who fought in the battle of Midway, the battle that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific, the following words are dedicated:
"THEY HAD NO RIGHT TO WIN. YET THEY DID, AND IN DOING SO THEY CHANGED THE COURSE OF A WAR…EVEN AGAINST THE GREATEST OF ODDS, THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE HUMAN SPIRIT - A MAGIC BLEND OF SKILL,
FAITH AND VALOR - THAT CAN LIFT MEN FROM CERTAIN DEFEAT TO INCREDIBLE VICTORY.
Quote by Walter Lord, Author
And finally regarding D-DAY, the final European invasion, the words of General George C. Marshall are enshrined on the WWII memorial as follows:
"WE ARE DETERMINED THAT BEFORE THE SUN SETS ON THIS TERRIBLE STRUGGLE OUR FLAG WILL BE RECOGNIZED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AS A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM ON THE ONE HAND AND OF OVERWHELMING FORCE ON THE OTHER."
Let's move on to the Korean War Memorial, which is located in front of and just to the left of the Lincoln Memorial. Larger than life size bronze statues of a patrol appear in the field, weary, cold and wet, with rifles at their sides, and their boots seem to be sinking into the mud. The statues depicting fighting men on patrol represent the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force working together for a common goal - victory. Near the Pool of Remembrance where the sacrifice of 54,246 American lives can be contemplated, an inscription summarizes the true meaning of the memorial:
"OUR NATION HONORS HER SONS AND DAUGHTERS WHO ANSWERED THE CALL TO DEFEND A COUNTRY THEY NEVER KNEW AND A PEOPLE THEY NEVER MET."
On to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is the most visited of all landmarks in Washington DC. It consists of three main elements the first of which is
“The Wall” where 58,235 names are inscribed. The Wall really makes a person reflect on the price of war, as do the 400 stars on the WWII monument that each represents 1000 deceased WWII Veterans.
In the fall of 1984, the Statue of the Three Servicemen was placed near the wall and I for one can never pass that sculpture without contemplating the youth of those who must face the elephant of war.
It is here where I always realize just how difficult being a combat leader really is. Something I wish more of our political candidates would realize. I have said it before and I will say it again military professionals do not need to make political decisions and politicians should not make military decisions.
That's another message so now lets move on to the last part of the Vietnam memorial, The Vietnam Women's Memorial. The statue honors all women who served in Vietnam. I am married to a former Army Nurse and have an Army Nurse for a daughter so as you might expect this is another place where I spend some time in thought.
The monuments themselves do not always enthrall me, but the memories that they represent draw me back in time are often difficult to ignore and sometimes they really hold me hostage.
No virtual tour would be complete without a stop by the ultimate symbol of honor to our veterans:
Arlington National Cemetery which is home to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the grave site of President John F. Kennedy, Arlington House and many other memorials. Arlington is also the final resting place of honorably discharged members of the armed services. There are 268,000 persons buried at Arlington, among them are Presidents, great national leaders, astronauts and Supreme Court justices. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is there and is guarded around the clock by specially selected members of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment (referred to as the
"Old Guard") based at Fort Myer, Virginia. The changing of the guard occurs every hour during winter and at night and every half hour in summer and during the day. The Old Guard is so dedicated to their duty that they even remained on duty through a hurricane.
War memorials reflect our country's need to say thanks - and sometimes… to say goodbye. Many veterans never got a chance to say goodbye to buddies. These monuments, and our celebration of Veteran's Day, commemorate and honor our servicemen and women as we are reminded of the human costs of war. It is a day to say good-by and thank you for your sacrifice. May we honor each of you veterans living or dead by living our lives with the honor courage and commitment that you have displayed.
I'll close with two powerful quotes that seem to best summarize the reason for our celebration today. Let me start with one from President Harry S Truman who said:
OUR DEBT TO THE HEROIC MEN AND VALIANT WOMEN IN THE SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY CAN NEVER BE REPAID. THEY HAVE EARNED OUR UNDYING GRATITUDE. AMERICA WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR SACRIFICES.
And May I add emphasis to that quote with these words:
AND AMERICA MUST NEVER FORGET THEIR SERVICE AND THEIR SACRIFICE.
My last quote is from Admiral Chester W Nimitz, a Texan, who said:
THEY FOUGHT TOGETHER AS BROTHERS-IN-ARMS. THEY DIED TOGETHER AND NOW THEY SLEEP SIDE BY SIDE. TO THEM WE HAVE A SOLEMN OBLIGATION.
I pray that God has granted those veterans who have gone on before us that eternal peace that they fought so hard to assure. I also pray that when our time comes, His grace will lead us home.
God bless America and her veterans,
for without them she would not exist.
Adjutant
Detachment 1083
Marine Corps League
