PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- "I think history will reflect that this generation stepped up and answered that call," said DLIFLC Commandant Col. Danial D. Pick during a wreath-laying ceremony here Nov. 10.
Pick was referring to young service members who have answered the call for selfless duty during the past 10 years of consecutive war. He compared the service of today's military members with that of the "greatest generation" --that they also answered a call for selfless duty.
Pick also spoke about the sacrifices their families have made in order to support their loved ones' military service.
He spoke to an audience of community members and guests gathered near the Berlin Wall monument here for the event in recognition of Veterans Day.
The topic of the event, covered by 1st Sgt. Samuel J. Crislip, Company B, 229thh Military Intelligence Battalion, was the history of Veterans Day.
Crislip spoke about the story behind the origin of the red poppy as the symbol of Veterans Day. The concept comes from the poem by Canadian Dr. John M. McCrae written in 1915. McCrae tended to the first victims of a German chemical attack on the British line at the Belgian town of Ypres during World War I.
MaCrae wrote:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from falling hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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