"I now know why men who have been to war yearn to reunite. Not to tell stories or look at old pictures. Not to laugh or weep. Comrades gather because they long to be with the men who once acted at their best; men who suffered and sacrificed, who were stripped of their humanity. I did not pick these men. They were delivered by fate and the military. But I know them in a way I know no other men. I have never given anyone such trust. They were willing to guard something more precious than my life. They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me. It was part of the bargain we all made, the reason we were so willing to die for one another. As long as I have my memory, I will think of them all,e very day. I am sure that when I leave this world, my last thought will be of my family and my comrades... Such good men."
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We had a special Veterans Day service at church today. We have been fortunate in that we have a pastor who makes a true effort to respect, thank, and pray for our military at each and every service. This service, however, was something more. The entire event was centered around the sacrifice and courage the members of our military display every single day. The two readings below are from the service today.
A
Reading from Brigadier General John F. Kelly, USMC, speech to the San Diego
Advisory Council - 5 September 2007
Since our Declaration of Independence, 42 million Americans have claimed the honor of
having served the nation in its military forces. Since that time over a million have lost
their lives servicing the colors, with millions more wounded. Since George Washington first took command of
the Continentals besieging Boston, America's warriors have stepped forward and
endured horrors unimaginable to most Americans, and saw it all with their young
eyes so those safe at home would never have to.
With all this service and loss of life, we as Americans can be proud of
the kind of people we are as we have never retained a square foot of any
country we have defeated. We possess no
empire. No man or woman calls us master,
as we have never subjugated any society.
On the contrary, billions across the planet - and billions more yet
unborn - are today free and increasingly prosperous because America took a
stand; but it has always fallen on the shoulders of our soldiers, sailors,
airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines that the task fell to … and they have
never wavered.
A
reading from General MacArthur's Farewell Speech - 12 May 1962
Others will
debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's
minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you
stand as the Nation's war guardians, as its lifeguards from the raging tides of
international conflict, as its gladiators in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended,
guarded and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right
and justice.
Let civilian
voices argue the merits or demerits of our process of government. Whether our strength is being sapped by
deficit financing indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty,
by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime
grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists
grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as firm and complete as
they should be.
These great
national problems are not for your professional participation or military
solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty,
Honor, Country.
You are the
leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of
defense. From your ranks come the great
captians who hold the Nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin
sounds…
This does not mean
that you are warmongers. On the
contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must
suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words
of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers:
"only the dead have seen the end of war."
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