“The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201d\u201d Gen. Douglas MacArthur<\/p>\n
Today is Memorial Day, a day for sober reflection on too-seldom shared sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces. These are the patriots who when called upon give their lives, their hopes, their dreams, for their country, for America.<\/p>\n
Theirs is an unbroken record of valor extending from Gettysburg’s Cemetery Ridge, to shell-pocked fields in France in two great World Wars, to Pork Chop Hill in Korea, to steaming jungles in Vietnam, and today to brutal sands and bloody streets in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
They are the ones who never fail to answer when the war tocsin sounds. They are the ones who too often return in flag-draped coffins, or with missing limbs and permanently scarred bodies. They are the ones who make possible the relatively easy and prosperous lives enjoyed by their countrymen at home while they who wear the uniform bleed in distant lands.<\/p>\n