The U.S Capitol Building is prepared for the inaugural ceremonies for President-elect Joe Biden as American flags are placed in the ground on the National Mall on Jan. 18, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
How about I start with something different — a geography lesson.
If I were to put a globe of the planet earth in front of you, with all the countries of the world printed on that globe, within 10 seconds, could you put your finger on the countries of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Vietnam, Korea? How about France or Okinawa, Japan?
America’s finest in military uniform have fought and died in those countries for the preservation of freedom; I don’t think it’s asking that much that Americans at least know where those countries are—do you?
We stand today on the good earth, the earth we all share. We are truly blessed in the Big Sky country, aren’t we: Vast skies, beautiful mountains and prairies, sunshine, fresh air filling our lungs, wonderful starlit evenings, the quiet, and above all—freedom. Freedom, like the big sky, is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? Freedom to live, to walk, to think, to sing, to vote, to pray or not to pray, and freedom to choose.
Beginning at Lexington Green in Massachusetts, April 1775, 77 armed men, Americans all, stood resolutely against the greatest military power of that day, the British army. These 77 American men were the first military force in the history of mankind to fight not for a prize, not for land, not for power. No, they fought for an idea; they fought for freedom. They fought and died for a cause brought forth not solely from the hand of man, but a cause truly from the mind and greater purpose of a higher spiritual authority.
When the Revolutionary War ended, representatives from the 13 original states gathered to create a fundamental document, a living document forging a foundation of who we are and what we are as a people. They created the Constitution of the United States.
For America’s armed forces the constitution clearly reads that Congress creates the United States military, and this military is subordinate to a democratically elected civilian: The president of the United States in the president’s role as commander-in-chief of the military. We are the first nation on earth to resolutely state that our military will be and must be subordinate to a democratically elected civilian.
The armed forces of the United States began June 1775, when the Continental Congress authorized the Continental Army. The Continental Navy followed in October 1775. The Marine Corps followed in November 1775, founded in Philadelphia in of all places, a bar. In time America’s armed forces would include the Coast Guard, the Air Force, and in December 2019, the United States Space Force.
Veterans have given much to defend America’s values and beliefs in freedom for all: Even in wars that twisted terribly wrong and challenged what America’s armed forces should be and must be used for.
Women in the United States military, beginning in World War I, struggled to achieve veterans status. America’s military women would not receive equal pay, rank and benefits as the men until after World War II. Women World War I telephone operators in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, many of whom served on the front lines in France, would not receive veterans status until 1977.
The American WWII five-star general-of-the-army, Omar N. Bradley wrote that war is a wretched debasement of the human experience, a defilement of the basic dignity of man.
He’s right.
Defending freedom by shot and shell must always be the last resort when all manner of peaceful settlement of a conflict has failed. American lives are too precious to think or act otherwise.
As veterans the common bond we have, regardless of our name, our gender, the color of our skin, or the way we pray, is the condition of our hearts and the color of our blood shed to uphold and protect freedom.
Today all America’s military veterans stand together as one, we stand together as warriors, warriors not for conflict but for peace. Peace is not solely the absence of war but exists when we truly honor and love all mankind, and afford freedom and liberty to all, even those with whom we disagree.
Veterans who have been in battle, seen battle, smelled it, feared it, cried in it, or were shrouded in god-awful exhaustion in it, are changed—forever changed. They aren’t better than those who have not gone to war, but they are different now.
Asking a veteran to describe war is an unanswerable question. For who can describe the depths of hell, where killing, once thought abhorrent, got mechanical and far too easy?
As Ernie Pyle, the great Pulitzer Prize winning WWII correspondent who lived with and ultimately died with combat soldiers wrote, “Say what you will, nothing can make a complete soldier except battle experience.”
I’ll add to what Pyle wrote and include the fear of a sailor in the bowels of a warship taking on water, an air crewman in a crippled aircraft at 10,000 feet with an engine on fire and hydraulics failing, and a salt-water-soaked marine enduring mortar fire. Or a combat nurse choking down every emotion she has, enabling her to care for frightfully wounded men coming off helicopter after blood-soaked helicopter.
America now has three generations of battle veterans: World War II–Korea; Vietnam–Gulf War, and Iraq–Afghanistan, plus an ever-growing women veterans population. America must not forget previous generations of veterans and concentrate solely on the newest generation of veterans.
America strives to honor military veterans. But today the line blurs between Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day. Armed Forces Day honors those presently serving in military uniform; Memorial Day honors those who died in military service; and Veterans Day honors those still living who served honorably in the military. As Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”
If America does not fervently strive to honor veterans to the highest standards afforded by law and our good graces as free people, then veterans’ sacrifice and noble service to America are reduced to the common and the insignificant. This we must never allow and never tolerate. Within the realm of human possibility and endurance, America must never leave veterans behind in body, in memory, or in spirit.
Veterans share a common bond: The bond of service to defend freedom’s ideals. But more than anything, veterans bond with each other. America’s veterans have faced many determined enemies, but we can’t defeat time. When a piece of colored cloth we call “Old Glory” passes in a parade, veterans once vibrant and physically strong, haltingly stand and with hands over their hearts, resolutely show the next generation of Americans how to give honors to the land veterans love and have given so much.
When sunset quiets the day and people settle into their reflections, veterans remember the long ago and the people they—and I—served with. Veterans look to the sunset and think, “It was good.”
May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless those who stand ready to defend this bright shining light of freedom and hope we call the United States of America.
About this column: Ed Saunders, a retired U.S. Army colonel, wrote these remarks that he will give at a Veterans’ Day ceremony at the Yellowstone National Cemetery in Laurel today.