Update:
I have to add this image and caption that say it all this Memorial Day:
Original Post:
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance: A day to remember and honor the hundreds of thousands American men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.
This author and thousands of others have written messages on past Memorial Days, expressing such respect and honor — mine much less eloquent than those of so many others.
Memorial Day observances typically occur around graduation week. It is the time when our service academies hold their commencement exercises and commission their cadets and midshipmen to go out and serve their country in the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Merchant Marine — on the ground, in the air and on the oceans; in peace and in war, wherever duty calls.
This year the four service academies will be graduating more than two thousand young men and women just before and after Memorial Day — the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on June 20.
In many cases, these brand-new lieutenants and ensigns will follow in the footsteps of those who have already made the ultimate sacrifice, knowing they will be facing similar hardships, risks and dangers.
It is in such a context that I see a connection between these proud and happy young men and women on their commencement day, joyously tossing their hats high into the sky, and those fallen heroes who we honor on their Memorial Day.
These young men and women from the service academies’ Class of 2015 know very well the dangers and hardships ahead and, yet, they gladly take that solemn oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…[to] well and faithfully discharge the office upon which [they are] about to enter…”
An oath that ends with the words, “So help me God” and which embodies and reflects the trust the nation places in them to indeed support and defend the Constitution.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., May 23, 2015, told the graduates, “We trust you to win our nation’s wars, to be leaders of character and competence and consequence. We trust you to leave our profession better than you found it.”
As a gesture of that trust in them, Dempsey gave an autographed dollar bill to each new second lieutenant after he delivered the commencement speech. (Below)
On this Memorial Day we place our trust in these new officers and in all those young men and women enlisting or receiving their commissions in our armed forces. We wish them Godspeed and we say God Bless to those who have gone before them.
Lead photo: Pfc. Johnny Allen, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), Charlie Company, places American flags at headstones in Section 12 of Arlington National Cemetery, Va., during “Flags in,” May 21, 2015. The Old Guard has conducted “Flags-in,” when an American flag is placed at every headstone, since 1948. (Photo: DOD/Released)
An abbreviated version of this article appears at the Huffington Post
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.