by Rees Lloyd
May 27, 2024
Memorial Day—which will be officially observed on Monday, May 27 this year — is a day to remember what should be remembered every day:
Maj. General Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), Medal of Honor recipient (Vietnam), is considered to be America’s most decorated living veteran. Along with his daughter, Army veteran Meghan Brady Smith, Gen. Brady is the author of the memoir, “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam, The Legend Of ‘Dust-off:’ America’s Battlefield Angels”). Gen. Brady reminds us on Memorial Day:
“We have no ‘titles of nobility’ under our Constitution. America’s ‘nobles’ are our veterans. On Memorial Day, what is most important, indeed, most vital, is that we remember, honor, and are grateful for, the courage, love, service and sacrifice of America’s veterans in defense of our freedom—especially those more than 1.3-million veterans who have given their lives defending our country. They are the soul of freedom, the guardians of our Constitution, and the vault for the values of our nation.”
Similarly, the late-General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, Commander of forces in the Persian Gulf War (“Desert Storm”), succinctly stated an enduring truth: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”
We Americans of this era owe a great debt to those American patriots who came before us, veterans who gave their lives for freedom. We pay that debt to those Americans who came before us by what we are willing to do to preserve freedom for the Americans who will come after us.
Certain truths endure and must be recognized, perhaps especially on Memorial Day, if the American people are going to live in freedom. The first enduring truth is that freedom is not free. It has been purchased by the blood of American patriots, over 1.3-million of whom have given their lives in defense of our freedom.
The second enduring truth is that Americans will not remain free unless this and every generation of Americans is willing to fight and die if necessary in defense of American freedom— as all prior generations have done to preserve freedom. I attach below data on those patriotic veterans who have given their lives for our freedom in all the wars.
We Americans on this Memorial Day must honor those patriot veterans who gave their lives for our freedom, and we must ask ourselves: Are we Americans still a people willing to die to preserve freedom, as did those more than 1.3-million veterans who gave their lives to preserve freedom for us?
I attach also the great war poem In Flanders Fields. Although written in 1915 during the Battle of Ypres in WWI, it is as relevant, compelling, and moving today as it was then. This is most especially true of the final lines, which call on us to take up the “torch” of freedom from the falling hands of those dying, and warns: “If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”
If we are to remain free, we Americans must not “break faith” with those 1.3-million American veterans who have given their lives for American freedom.
May God bless and keep each and all of them; and may we Americans always honor and never forget them.
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!
FREEDOM IS NOT FREE — REMEMBER THE AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN WAR THAT WE MIGHT BE FREE:
American Wars: Killed In Action
Revolutionary War……………. 25,324
War of 1812……………………….. 2,260
Mexican War…………….……… 13,283
Civil War…………………..…… 650,000
Spanish American War………. 7,166
World War I…………………… 116,708
World War II………………… 408,206
Korean War………………….… 38,686
Vietnam War…………….….…. 58,223
Persian Gulf War…………………. 363
Iraq………………………………..… 4,212
Afghanistan………………..… 2,215+13
TOTAL KIA: 1,342,219
TOTAL MISSING IN ACTION: 83,126
In Flanders Fields
by [Canadian] Major John McCrae, May 1915, WW 1
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be it yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
