Veterans Day 2014

The greatest monuments to fallen men are not made in marble. They're deep in the sea, deep in the jungles, on foreign battlefields, a rifle driven into the ground with a helmet on top and some tags.

I have tried to figure out how I wanted to honor our veterans today.  A simple thank you does not cover it.  A veteran is a person who at some point in their life wrote a check, a check payable to the American people up to and including their own life... They are the heroes that we should learn about, and the men, and women, who gave the ultimate sacrifice must be remembered.  I have a very good friend, a man that I have looked up to since I met him in the summer of 2008.  He is a retired LT. Colonel and I will just call him Mark.  A few years ago I was in DC, go figure, and I was again with my friend Mark and his two sons, we were walking around Arlington National Cemetery.  Mark was pointing out this grave and telling me a story here and that grave over there and telling me about that solider who lies in peace and in a place of honor in the rolling hills that make up Arlington.  

As we continued our walk around Arlington we saw the graves of historic men, like Jimmy Doolittle, Maxwell Taylor and Joe Lewis just to name a few.  As we approached the Tomb of the Unknowns we came across a grave with a large collection of items that had been left in memory on top of it.  That is when Mark told me about his friend Colonel James "Nick" Rowe, a Vietnam POW who escaped his captors and was rescued by his brothers in arms.  A man who even after he had gone through the hell I will never know as a POW in the "Hanoi Hilton" he returned home.  This man who has earned his rightful time to rest, relax and enjoy his life with his wife and family in a world without war, what does this man do, he continues to serve his country.  He continued and he paid the ultimate sacrifice when he was killed by cowardly terrorists while serving the country he so dearly loved working in the Philippines.  This brought a reality to me that every tomb stone in Arlington, and every national cemetery across our nation, has a story. A story that we should never forget.

 

Not far from Colonel Rowe’s grave is that of a man who shares a similar story.  A story of service to our country and selflessness that comes from putting the good of our nation above his personal wants and desires.  Many people know the story of John Basilone, A United States Marine Gunnery Sargent in World War Two.  Gunny Basilone was the child of Italian Immigrants born in New York.  He had served in the US Army prior to the war and his honorable discharge granted him a waiver from having to serve in World War Two, but what does he do?  He goes back into the service of his country.  As a Marine he served in the South Pacific with the First Battalion, 7^th Marine Division in the Battle of Guadalcanal.  There his machine gun squadron was attacked by about 3000 Japanese soldiers.  After two plus days of continues fighting only Basilone and two other men from his squad were still alive. For this action John Basilone was given the highest Honor a United States Service man can receive.  The Congressional Medal of Honor. After this he is sent home to a parade in his home town, which to this day is still celebrated every year.  His medal grants him the privilege of enjoying a nightly family dinner with his parents.  After getting the honor to come home again what does he do?  He goes back to train new Marines in California.  There he meets his wife and gets married.  This is a man who has twice served his country and twice been allowed to come home, he has gotten married and is in the perfect place to start the next chapter of his life.  And again he sets it aside for his country.  He returned to the Pacific to a hell of a rock called Iwo Jima.  There he led his men into combat there he paid the ultimate sacrifice having been killed by Japanese forces on the first day of fighting.  For his service on Iwo Jima he is awarded the Navy Cross.

 

Hundreds of thousands of men and women have given their lives for this country since the Battle of Lexington and Concord.  When that shot heard round the world was fired the course of human existence was changed.  No longer would we have a military of men who are forced to serve at the whim of a king but instead we have a fighting force stronger than any the world has ever seen.  In our history millions of men and women have served and most of them have come home, they been fortunate to enjoy the world without war.  Some became Teachers and Educators like Coach who took me to Washington when I was in high school, the trip that brought out my patriotism, a patriotism that has grown from that trip and many others including the one to Arlington with my friend Mark.  Some like my father who served in the Navy and when he returned home and he spent the rest of his career serving the US Government in different capacities.  Or even men like George H. W. Bush who served as a naval aviator in World War Two and returned home, made money in the oil business and later served as President of the United States.           

 

Our military is a force of volunteer soldiers who take up arms not to conquer land but a force for freedom a military force that as General Colin Powell once said

"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

 

This exercise started about a month ago, I was watching Black Hawk Down, remembering the 18 men who gave their lives to try and make the world a better place in the Battle of Mogadishu.  Watching that movie brought me back to a conversation I had with my friend Mark this past summer.  It was the emotions of that day that left a lasting impression on me.  Mark knew the men who fought in Mogadishu, while he has never, and has no intention to ever watch the film, he told me stories about men like CWO Cliff Wolcott, CWO Mike Durant and many others.  The laughter that they shared, the pain from losing his friend it all came out at that conversation over lunch.  From that conversation I saw my friend go through a roller coaster of emotions, but I will tell you if you were not right in the middle of the conversation you never would have seen him as anything other than the strong leader that he is talking with his friend over a meal.  At the end of that meal I thanked my friend, I was honored that he would share the memories of those men with me, and by sharing those memories a part of each of those men will live forever.

 

As I finish up I remember a story I heard when I was a child.  A story about a solider in World War One, Private Martin Treptow, he was a member of the Rainbow Division and he was killed in France while trying to run the communications of his superiors during an attack.  When they recovered his body they found his diary and written inside of the book was his pledge. 

 “America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."

So here is my way of trying to give a little more immortality to the men who have protected all of us, and insured that this is the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

 

Thank you to all the veterans who have served this nation.  And a special thanks to those family members of veterans who never got to enjoy the world with war.