Captain’s Column

Every year on Memorial Day, it is important that we take time to honor those service men and women who lived a life of courage and made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

We often pay tribute to those who have gone before us by placing a wreath or an American flag at a military grave site or a specific war memorial.

Memorial Day is specifically about those brave patriots who have given what President Lincoln called, ‘the last full measure of devotion.’

The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen we remember on Memorial Day answered the call to service in nation’s hour of need.

Our brave men and women, fathers, brothers, mothers and sisters, stood to fight for America’s highest ideals such as freedom, liberty and justice for all.

This special holiday, while just a single day, is a day we continue to remember and hold in our hearts, those loved ones whose sacrifice helped define who we are.

As we think about the thousands of men and women who are buried in cemeteries across our nation and the globe, it is crucial that we fully understand the enormity of the cost of our freedoms and the privilege it is to live in a land that defends freedom’s values from those who would challenge them.

These men and women we honor on Memorial Day paid a price they did not owe, but we now owe them the promise that their sacrifice was not in vain, and we will always remember them.

We also think about their families and friends, perhaps people we know, and we mark this special day by celebrating their legacy while grieving their absence in our lives.

President Kennedy once said, “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”

Today, we equally honor service men and women, but the sentiment remains clear – a key component of our nation’s greatness lies in our ability to honor, appreciate and cherish, through our actions and our memories, all those who died to ensure our freedom.

We often hear that freedom has a price and that each generation pays its due. Memorial Day is our day to say thank you to those who for generations have foot the bill; those who have paid so dearly – with their lives. And also to their families whose lives are forever changed and to whom we owe an enormous debt.

In what has become a “sound-byte” culture, we must find ways to ensure the legacy of our heroes endures. Their history deserves telling and retelling.

Please join me, this Memorial Day, to keep their memories alive. Honor their sacrifices, tell their stories, cherish their memories.