Happy Veteran's Day - November 11, 2006

Below is a speech that my nephew (blog name: Master Gunner) prepared and gave for some students in Mission, Texas.

Introduction:

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, Teachers, students, and, most of all, my fellow Veterans and their families. I am humbled, and honored to be able to stand here today and speak to all of you. Before we can begin to appreciate the meaning of Veterans Day, we should first look at the history behind the occasion:

Veterans Day is the American name for the international day called Armistice Day. It falls on 11 November, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War One. The same day is observed elsewhere as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. All major hostilities of World War 1 were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice. Armistice Day was first commemorated in the United States by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and many states made it a legal holiday. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 inviting all Americans to observe the day, and made it a legal holiday nationwide in 1938. The holiday has been observed annually on November 11 since that date - first as Armistice Day, later as Veterans Day.

On November 11, 1953, the citizens of Emporia, Kansas staged a Veterans Day observance in lieu of an Armistice Day remembrance. Congressman Ed Rees of Emporia, Kansas subsequently introduced legislation in the United States House of Representatives to officially change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. The name of the holiday was changed on 1 June 1954, to honor those who served in all American wars. In the 230 years since we declared Independence and fought to become a nation of free men and women, the United States has fought valiantly to preserve that freedom, and secure that freedom for people throughout the world who live under tyranny and oppression. The United States has fought in every region of the world. Now, we find ourselves in a Global War, against enemies that don’t wear uniforms or recognize any laws or conventions. We find ourselves in a struggle that threatens not only our National Security and the safety of our friends and families, but our very way of life. Our enemy has declared that the very things that make us Americans, is what makes them despise us. Our enemy doesn’t believe in the Freedom of a person to choose his or her religion, or choose what books to read, what music to listen to, or what movies to watch, or even the right of a person to choose to speak out against what they see as wrong. Extremism of any kind is never open to opinions that are not their own.

I want there to be no mistake: we as a nation are dedicated to the well-being of our most precious resource, our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters serving in our military.
We are asked to keep America safe from an enemy who is indifferent to how many people they kill, and do not differentiate between Soldiers or civilians.
We are asked to keep America Safe from an enemy who doesn’t care if he destroys Barracks, or churches and schools.
We are asked to keep America Safe from an enemy who doesn’t care how much violence they cause.
We are asked to keep America Safe from an enemy who hates the very things our great Nation was founded on: freedom, liberty, and democratic process.
We fight against an enemy who only wants to dominate, control, and dictate.
So how do we, as Americans, know we will win this War?

We can be confident of our success because our Nation has the dedicated men and women of our Armed Forces fighting for freedom, just as the generations before them fought for the very same values that we’re fighting for today. In the words of GEN Douglas MacArthur “No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.”
We have without a doubt the finest and best trained Soldiers our Army, and the entire world, has ever seen. They are war fighters, statesmen, diplomats, and community leaders, and they do these things all at once.

They can adapt to any situation, they can overcome any obstacle, and they can win on any battlefield. The Soldier, the veteran, is tenacious. He or she will never quit. They will fight to win, until there is no enemy left to overcome. One of my personal Heroes, General George Patton, once said : “Americans, traditionally love to fight. All real Americans, love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball players, the toughest boxers ... Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time.”

To put this into perspective, imagine, if you will: Throw everything you need for a year into two duffel bags. All you pants, shirts, socks, and underwear. Grab a weapon, that you will keep with you, within arm’s reach, for the rest of the foreseeable future. It’s with you when you go to the bathroom, it’s with you when you sleep, it’s with you when you eat, or even just relaxing for a few minutes. Put a Kevlar helmet on our head, and a flack vest on your upper body. You’ll be wearing it most of the time while you’re gone. Say goodbye to your family, and get on an airplane to fly halfway around the world, so that you can put yourself in mortal danger every single second, of every single minute, of every single hour, of every single day of the time that you are gone. Think about that for a second. And think about the fact that you don’t know when you’ll come back. You might come back in six months, you might come back in a year, you may even come back in more than a year. You may not even come back at all...

Now, imagine actually doing it, without complaining or bellyaching to anyone. Take a second and look to the person on your right hand side. Now look to the person on your left hand side. Look at the person in front of you, and then look at the person sitting behind you. Being a Soldier, knowingly putting yourself in danger, for those people, and all the people in this auditorium, all of America, is one of the most selfless things that a person can do. And each and every one of the veterans in this room made that choice.

Each and every single of the Veterans we honor today, made that same choice I just asked you to imagine yourself making.
Some of those Veterans saw combat. Some of them didn’t. Some of those Veterans spent the entire term in their branch of service never having to deploy. But all of them made the decision to serve.

I like to think that everyone lives by a personal code, a personal motto. Mine is: “Always do the right thing, even when no one is looking”. That motto has kept me out of more trouble than I care to remember. The Veterans that we honor on this day, did the right thing. They served something that was much larger and more important to them than their own self-interests. They served a Nation founded on Ideas that we will always hold dear. Words like Liberty, Courage, Freedom, and Democracy. The Founding Fathers of our country realized, from the very beginning, that the idea of a Free Republic would be meaningless without the Blood and commitment of patriots to serve that idea. They knew that, without people who would fight for the idea, the Republic could not survive.

And, as we all know, the United States has survived for over two-hundred and thirty years.
On this Veterans Day, we must remember the millions of men and women, those alive, and those no longer with us, that have served, given selflessly of themselves, and put themselves in personal danger, to make sure you could enjoy the freedoms that I know you would never take for granted.

Texans have fought in every American War since we were made a state. We’ve fought in the Battle of Palmetto Ranch in the Civil War, just a few miles from here. We rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders at the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War. In the Battle of the Somme in 1918, we stood shoulder to shoulder with the British, and pushed the German Imperial Forces back to where they started four years before. Texans fought on both the European and Pacific fronts during World War Two, from the Kasserine Pass to the shores of Iwo Jima. We stormed the beaches of Normandy, and we helped relieve the encircled forces at Bastogne. In 1950, we landed with General MacArthur at Inchon, and helped to recapture Seoul in what is now South Korea. In 1968, Soldiers and Marines from Texas helped to defend Hue City in Vietnam against a deadly North Vietnamese Offensive. In Operation Just Cause, Texas Soldiers were part of the effort to bring Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega to justice. We fought in the Battle of 73 Easting in the First Gulf War, and helped destroy over 300 Tanks and Personnel carriers in the Battle of Medina Ridge. In 2001, Texans were part of the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and in 2003, we destroyed the Iraqi Republican Guard. The Fourth Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas captured Saddam Hussein. The First Cavalry Division from Fort Hood took the brunt of the attacks from the Mahdi Army Uprising in April 2004 and wiped out over 80% of Muqtada Al-Sadr’s militia.
None of these things would have been accomplished, none of these battle would have been won, if it wasn’t for the efforts of the guy on the ground who got his boots dirty, the guy who ate the cold chow, the guy who marched through the snow of Europe, the mud of Vietnam, and the deserts of Iraq. America would not have tasted victory, if it hadn’t been for the blood, the sweat, or the bravery of the American veteran.

As General Norman Schwarzkopf once put it, “It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle; it takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.” Ladies and gentlemen, we are indeed blessed with a great multitude of heroes who put their lives on the line to serve and protect the citizens of a grateful Nation. I am absolutely and unequivocally proud of the fine men and women I have the pleasure of serving with. They constantly go above and beyond the call of duty, and they are without a doubt the heroes of their generations.

Let us not forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country as well as those who have been severely injured. We do not take their sacrifice lightly. We will continue to honor their memory their legacy of patriotism, their bravery under fire. They will never be forgotten.

A great British Statesman and friend to the American people, Sir Winston Churchill, once said:
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

Thank you for your time, and God Bless America.