Good Morning, everyone, and thank you so much for coming out here this beautiful morning to take a moment out of your day to remember those who have given so much. On behalf of Brigadier General Joseph Martin and the entire NTC, I would like to thank you for the honor and privilege of speaking here today.
Thank you for bringing your children out here to teach them this invaluable lesson of what Memorial Day is all about. Thank you to Mr. Rick Oakley and the VFW, Mead Mortuary and the Mountain View Cemetery staff for taking the time to coordinate this special event each year that brings all of us together.
I would also like to thank Ms. Angie Acosta of the American Legion Auxiliary Post 324 in Barstow for organizing the large group of volunteers to help place 1,700 flags on the graves of our deceased here. She and her company of volunteers included the Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Barstow Beauty Pageant, American Legion Post 324, American Legion Riders, private citizens, and I am sure I missed several organizations, but they have been doing this for decades-- So please join me in a round of applause to thank them for honoring our veterans buried here.
What was the worst day of your life? Think about that for a moment. I know all of us have suffered tragedy in our lives, and this is not meant to belittle any of those, be it a loss of a loved one, a family member, or yourself being stricken by a terrible disease like cancer or experiencing a terrible accident. But I would suggest that the elite and undesired club of our Gold Star Families have experienced that day, that moment, that unbelievably excruciating pain and shock when they opened their front door to be confronted with the appearance of a casualty notification team comprised of a soldier and chaplain dressed in full uniform.
It is this same team who asks to enter their home to deliver the worst news of their lives. I am sure each Gold Star family member has a unique and emotionally filled memory of hearing those fateful words "The Secretary of the Army has asked me to inform you that your son, your daughter, your husband, your father was killed/died in Iraq, or in Afghanistan, or in Vietnam, or in Korea…… The Secretary extends his deepest sympathy to you and your family during this trying period."
While I am not a Gold Star Family member, I have had the sacred honor of being a Casualty Notification Officer. I can tell you that it is an amazing responsibility that is taken with the utmost respect, burden and honor-- to look into the eyes, I should say, the soul of a loved one, be it a father, mother, loving husband or wife or young son or daughter-- and deliver that news. It is truly life changing for all.
So why are we here? I think Abraham Lincoln said it best 152 years ago at his Gettysburg address
…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain….
Memorial Day has its beginnings in our Civil War, a war that astonished people then, by the scale of destruction, by how bitterly and tragically it tore the nation apart, and how it uprooted lives and divided families, communities, and the nation for generations to come.
It is said that not until Vietnam did our death total in foreign wars eclipse the losses suffered in the Civil War, in which some 6 to 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers perished, which was roughly 2% of the population then of about 31 million. In World War II, roughly 400,000 Americans died, about 1/3 of one percent of the population then of about 133 million.
In Vietnam just under 60,000 U.S. service members perished. And since 2001, about 6,700 Americans or 2/10ths of one percent of our 300 million-person country have died in combat areas in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world, as the U.S. has taken on the terrorist organizations that seek to change our way of life.
But whether draftees or volunteers, every one of them who gave "their last full measure of devotion" is not just a number or a percentile. Each name is not just a face that may appear in the news for a day or two, if lucky. Each had a home. Each had loved ones who received that fateful news on their front doorstep from a Casualty Notification team, or a postman, or perhaps, even worse, when numbers were so high, the War Department issued telegrams.
Each had a future. Each probably didn't think or expect to die the way he or she did. But one thing is common….Each left loved ones who will grieve their untimely deaths for the rest of their lives.
I want to put a face on one of these numbers. I want to tell you about one of our most recent causalities and first suffered since official "combat" operations ended in Afghanistan and Operation Resolute Support began.
Specialist John Dawson from Whitinsville, Mass was 22 years old and a combat medic with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. He died on April 9 from small arms fire in Jalalabad from an "inside attack" while on an escort mission and was laid to rest just one month ago, perhaps in cemetery just like the one we are in today. According to his fellow soldiers he loved the Patriots, Bruins, flip cell phones, cigar magazines, the stock market and conspiracy theories (Boston Globe).
On a more serious note, and much like many of the great service members who raised their right hands to swear to support and defend the constitution of the U.S. DURING A TIME of WAR, they were selfless and touched many lives. It should not go unnoticed that John decided to become a combat medic and was willing to risk his life to save others--of which there is no greater calling. His division commander reported that another soldier approached him and explained that John had helped him deal with an untimely death in his own family and helped him work through his fears and doubts about life, about being in the Army and about being in harm's way on the streets of Afghanistan. According to the division commander the solider stated, "I am now and forever will be a better man because of Dawson."
His life was full of possibilities. He was an honor student in his high school electrical program, a member of the National Honor Society and the varsity soccer team. He was an avid cyclist and a member of the 10th Gear Christian Bicycle Group. He studied for a year at the Maritime Academy and community college before enlisting. At his funeral, just one month ago, his father told a story of John initiating a blood drive to help save more than 200 patients.
It is this sense of duty, honor and service to their country that draws young men and women like Specialist John Dawson to join the Army and our sister military services. Like John, thousands have given "their last full measure of devotion" and WE HONOR them TODAY.
We also honor their families, who now have an empty seat at their dinner table and who, maybe years later, still keep a set of photographs in a special corner of their homes.
They are not unlike our own Mrs. Romona Griego, a Gold Star Mother, whose son, PFC Clarence Griego, died in Vietnam just two months shy of his 20th birthday. Before you leave today, please thank her and others like her, for loving and raising their sons and daughters who gave their all to protect our nation and to ensure the rights, privileges and liberties we enjoy today as Americans.
It is easy to forget in our busy everyday lives, how life has changed forever for those who have sat in the front row of these funerals or opened their doors and had their futures changed forever by that Casualty Notification Team.
But as Lincoln said near the end of the Civil War, in his second Inaugural Address:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan….
So what can we do as Americans? You are doing part, by dedicating this time today to honor the fallen. But I think it is more than that. I think the fallen would charge all of us to live every moment, drink every second to the fullest and truly appreciate the liberty and freedoms we have. Hug your families, tell them you love them, enjoy the outside, call your loved ones. It is sad, but I believe true when Thomas Jefferson said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Now it is our duty to remember those Patriots and remind others of those Patriots. When you see someone today who didn't have the opportunity to partake in a Memorial Day event, tell them about Specialist John Dawson, tell them about Private First Class Clarence Griego. Make sure they are not just a number, and others know of their sacrifices they made to protect our lives.
Thank you so much for coming out today. May God Bless you and God Bless the United States of America.
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