A good friend of mine was asked to do a presentation to a group of Boy Scouts. The following is what he wrote 13 years ago, and it still holds true today.
VETERANS DAY
Today there is conflict in the world, and perhaps there always will be, such as our current struggles with Iraq and terrorists. But the United States fortunately enjoys relative peace and freedom, even after nine-eleven.
Like other things of great value, this security did not come cheaply. Part of the cost has already been paid by Americans who answered the call to military duty when their country needed them. They served in 11 wars from the Revolution to the Persian Gulf, earning the special distinction "veteran." And others serve us today.
I served three combat tours with the Marine Corps in Vietnam in the late 1960’s, and I know of other parents in this troop who have served in the military, as well.
VETERANS DAY was originally called Armistice Day, the only American holiday created to remember a specific moment in time.
In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, the world rejoiced. After four years of bitter war, an armistice was signed. The "war to end all wars", as it was called, was over. This is why we observe Veterans Day on November 11 every year, regardless of the day of the week on which it falls.
Many people confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Memorial Day is primarily to honor those who died in battle, while Veterans Day is set aside to honor ALL who served honorably in the military, in both war and peacetime.
They remind us all that this great nation was not established by cowards, nor will cowards preserve it.
America will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
What we remember and honor on Veterans Day are those brave men and women who believed so much in an idea, and were so possessed by a sense of duty and honor, that they were willing to risk death for it.
And that idea, of course, is freedom.
Freedom is America’s heart. It is central to our being, not only because it is practical and beneficial, but because it is morally just and right.
But that freedom can be retained only by the eternal vigilance that has always been its price.
Those of us who have seen the dead and the wounded, the mud and the misery, the suffering and the sacrifice of war, and those who have given their loved ones in mortal conflict, know full well that a democracy can exact a very high price on those who share in its bounty and also know that Freedom is never free.
