I would like to thank everyone who has served our nation. I found the following buried in my computer and thought you might appreciate it.
Remember, Honor and Teach. Remember our fallen. Honor those who serve. Teach our children the value of freedom.
At this time, I would like to ask the Chaplain to open our ceremony with a word of prayer.
Remember our fallen. No greater honor can be paid to our fallen than to remember their cause and sustain it. The freedoms we enjoy today were paid for with the blood of generations past. Our nation was founded on the principles of freedom and liberty for all without oppression or interference from tyranny. Throughout history, these principles have been challenged by our enemies; enemies that do not understand or appreciate the American way of life. Each time our freedom has been challenged, brave Americans have stood up and defended it. Every veteran has given something to defend our freedom. Many have given their lives. Today, we make a special point to remember those who have gone before us and the sacrifices they have made to gain and preserve our freedom.
Honor those who serve. General Jimmy Doolittle once said that there was nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer. The United States Armed Forces are the epitome of that statement. No one forces our servicemen and women to serve. They do it willingly, enthusiastically, and consider it an honor and privilege. Material rewards are not heaped upon our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Instead, they accept the reward of a job well done and done for the right reason. Their success is not measured by the size of their Christmas bonus, but by the number of their friends who return safely from their duties each day. To the casual observer on the street their ribbons and badges serve as nothing but decoration. To our service members, these ribbons and badges represent rites of passage, recognition for exceptional service, good times, hard times, and sometimes they even represent wounds that will forever be remembered and will never heal. Today, we honor those who volunteer to serve our country, often sacrificing time with family, friends and loved ones so that we may sleep each night under a blanket of freedom, the warmth of which is enjoyed by no other nation on Earth.
Teach our children the value of freedom. The freedom we enjoy is too often taken for granted. Most of our society is not aware of the price that has been paid for our freedom, nor the continued expense of maintaining it. As former President Ronald Reagan said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." Our children must understand that their actions or inactions will determine the path that this nation follows when we are too old to direct it ourselves. They must be taught that freedom has a price, and there will come a day when they must pay the bill. When that day comes, will they be ready? We can only be sure if we take steps now to show them what the cost of their freedom has been. They must remember those who are currently serving, and honor them by taking their place when the time comes. It must be taught, understood, and accepted that our freedom will only live as long as brave Americans are willing to dedicate their lives to its preservation.
Teaching the value of freedom is perhaps more important at this point in our nation’s history than it has ever been and it mustn’t stop with our children. We must continually reach out to all Americans and remind them what the cost of our freedom has been. There are those in our society who seek to rewrite the history books for the sake of political correctness. They place the importance of not hurting anyone’s feelings above the importance of remembering our true past so that lessons learned may be applied to our future. With every passing day there are fewer and fewer eye witnesses alive to rebut the revisionist claims with their firsthand accounts of our past. The defense of our history, and thus our future, falls to us. Those who seek to revise our past also contend that our freedom has not truly been defended since it was earned during the Revolutionary War. Just because the fight for our freedom and liberty has not been waged in our backyards does not mean that we are not defending it. Each and every time we are able to offer another nation the gift of freedom, we are defending our own. The best way to defend our freedom is to give other nations the ability to escape the tyranny and dictatorship that seeks to end the American way of life. We offer other nations a very special gift; the gift of freedom. This is a gift that may be accepted or declined, embraced or wasted. It cannot be returned or exchanged; its cost cannot be refunded. The cost of this gift is the lives of our service men and women, the lives of our brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, mothers and fathers. It is our friends and family members that give of themselves so that we may offer this gift. All give some, some give all. They are who we honor here today.
A wreath will now be placed in recognition of the sacrifices made by past and present members of the United States Army in the interests of preserving our freedom. Since 1775, the U.S. Army has been the primary provider of ground based force for our nation.
The U.S. Navy, also founded in 1775, has sailed the world in defense of our nation and its beliefs. A wreath recognizing the sacrifices made by those who serve our nation at sea aboard the vessels of the United States Navy will now be placed.
The U.S. Marine Corp serves as an amphibious fighting force that is capable of rapid deployment to any place in the world. Like the Army and Navy, it was founded in 1775. A wreath will now be placed in recognition of the sacrifices made by members of the United States Marine Corp.
In 1947 it was recognized that battles waged in the air would be a major component of all future conflicts. Because of this fact it was decided that a branch of the military charged only with securing the sky was needed and the U.S. Air Force emerged from the U.S. Army Air Forces to become its own branch of service. A wreath will now be placed in recognition of those in the United States Air Force who protect us from above.
Since 1790, the U.S. Coast Guard has provided security of our shores. They continue their missions today by identifying and stopping illegal activities occurring in our coastal waters and promoting maritime safety. We will now place a wreath recognizing the members of the United States Coast Guard.
The United States Merchant Marine provides importing and exporting of goods by sea during peacetime and transport of troops and war materials during times of war. These mariners function as a naval auxiliary in times of need and we will now place a wreath in honor of them.
In every armed conflict in our nation’s history, members of our armed forces have been captured by the enemy and held as prisoners of war or have disappeared and were declared missing in action. For each of them, there has been a family suffering and seeking closure. A wreath will now be placed in memory of those whose last known status was Prisoner of War or Missing in Action. You are not forgotten.
Our children willingly serve our nation with the understanding that they may be called to defend our freedom in a manner that they may not understand. Nonetheless, our boys and girls always answer when called. We may only send them away to war for a year, but when they return they are decades older than when they left. There is no way to fully prepare them for what they are called to do, and no period of service has ever been made totally without sacrifice. Our service men and women deserve to be remembered, and it is our duty to make sure that they are.
