Josiah Bartz and Brig. Gen. Milford H. 'Beags' Beagle Jr, Fort Jackson
commander salute as the flag is lowered during the Memorial Day ceremony at
Centennial Park May 31. (Screenshot) VIEW ORIGINAL
“It’s always an honor to speak at Memorial Day because it is a day for us to honor all the men and women who gave their lives in defense of our nation,” said Brig. Gen. Milford H. “Beags” Beagle Jr., Fort Jackson commander during the post’s Memorial Day ceremony May 31.
Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was first known, was borne out of the Civil War and through a need to honor those who died during that war. Today it is a date to recognize and honor all service members who died defending the United States.
President Joe Biden said in a speech Monday in Arlington National Cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater, that "our freedom and the freedom of innumerable others has been secured by young men and women who answered the call of history, and gave everything in the service of an idea."
Beagle reminded the audience at Fort Jackson’s event that the day was “not a four-day weekend” but rather an “obligation to remember the fallen.”
“Today we obligate ourselves to not forgetting,” he said. “It is about not forgetting that someone gave their all for us today. Not forgetting that someone stepped forward when others would not. Not forgetting that freedom is paid for” by someone.
At the event Beagle and Post Command Sgt. Maj. Philson Tavernier laid a wreath near the flagpole in Centennial Park.
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