I
look out upon the dark sea water before us and think of the
sailors who sailed on it and under it – some never came
back. I look up at the gray sky above and think of the airmen
who flew there – some never came back. I look down at
the earth beneath us and think of soldiers who fought on it
– some never came back.
Today we salute the bravery, the skill and the dedication
of the men and women of our armed forces who fought and died
in American wars from 1776 to the Iraq conflict last month.
Why did they do it? They did it to protect the freedoms we
enjoy – freedoms which may be threatened from far and
near.
Since American military forces took to the field in the American
Revolution to give birth to our nation, much has changes in
the way we face the enemy. As President Bush said in his recent
speech from the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln,
muskets have been replaced with laser-guided missiles. Reconnaissance
on foot has been replaced with pilot-less aircraft relaying
real-time video. Runners on horseback have been replaced with
instant field communications. Artillery dragged by horse has
been replaced by Bradley fighting vehicles.
Some would say that everything has changed – but I say
not so. The most important things – far and away the
most important things – have never changed. The courage
to face the enemy, the dedication to the mission, the fortitude
to bear adversity, the willingness to sacrifice everything
that life has to offer – these, these most precious
things of all, have not changed and never will.
We can never know how each of them fell. We can get a glimpse
of it, however, in the words of the famous World War II correspondent
Ernie Pyle. He wrote this on June 16, 1944:
“I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy
in the country of France. It was a lovely day for strolling
along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of
them sleeping forever. The water was full of squishy little
jelly fish about the size of your hand. Millions of them.
In the center each of them had a green design exactly like
a four-leaf clover. The good luck emblem.”
Men and women in uniform will always be in harm’s
way and some will make the ultimate sacrifice, as they have
just this spring – a spring they will never see. We
all saw a United States Marine and his Iraqi friends standing
on a tank pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein, and in
a way we all stood on that tank. We, here in Greenwich today,
stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us,
and have given so much that we may live another day.
We come here today to look back and pay our deepest respects
to those who have fallen. But is there more? What is there
about this Memorial Day today that guides our future?
It would be futile for me to attempt to answer that question
more clearly, more perfectly, than President Lincoln did,
and I shall not try to do so. Rather I ask you to join with
me in listening to his words – but in more than that
– in living his words:
“It
is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried
on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us – that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they here gave the last full measure of devotion –
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of
freedom; and that this government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
And so we bid goodnight to those in uniform who have gone
before and made this day possible, and good morning to those
who serve us today.
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