Darryl Morris: Memorial Day ....

Vietnam Veterans Memorial at night

Lt. Col. Alton D. Morris, USA (Ret.), our former teacher, and a Vietnam Veteran, delivered this address on Memorial Day, May 26, 2008 before the Collingsworth County, Texas Veterans

Commander Owens, VFW Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am sure that all who are gathered here today -- beside this memorial to the fallen heroes of Collingsworth County -- are aware that this day was once called Decoration Day. It was a day of national commemoration of the men and women who died in military service to our country. Decoration Day began first to honor soldiers who died during the American Civil War. After World War I, it was expanded to include those who died in any war or military action. In 1967, as a result of the slowly dawning realization that we should not merely decorate the graves of our honored dead but should, instead, memorialize them, the name of this observance was changed to Memorial Day. This is a fitting change -- for to memorialize means to remember -- and remember we must, lest their sacrifices be in vain.

It is said that we citizens of the United States pray for peace but prepare for war. War, as our history shows us, has been with us always; and as current events indicate, it may well be the fate of generations in the future. In the Bible's book of Matthew, Chapter 24, Verses 6 and 7, Jesus tells his disciples on the Mount of Olives that "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom...." Those gathered here who remember World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the First Gulf War, the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the many conflicts in between in which we have been engaged know the truth of this prophecy. Further, knowing that we now face an implacable enemy in the terrorist who has vowed to continue the fight until our way of life is destroyed and we are forced to embrace his fanatical view of the world, we must sadly accept that our children and our children's children may be asked to assume responsibility for perpetuating those blessings God has seen fit to bestow upon this nation.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who served on the United States Supreme Court for 30 years and is one of the most widely quoted Supreme Court Justices, said in an 1884 Memorial Day Address: "[I]t is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return." "And on this day when we decorate the graves of our fallen heroes," he concluded, "the dead come back and live with us."

And I would say that the dead come back to us not so much to claim the well-deserved honor we extend to them but as a reminder to the youth of this nation that what privileges and blessings they enjoy in what President Reagan called the "Shining City on a Hill" were purchased and have been defended at great price. The dead also remind us that the greatest blessing we enjoy here in the United States, and which is in short supply throughout the rest of the world, is freedom. And, as we honor those who gave up their lives in this cause, we are reminded that freedom, indeed, is not free. It is bought and paid for with the blood of men and women who did not flinch at paying the price.

When we remember our nation's conflicts, we tend to fasten our memories onto those who the world acclaims as "heroes" -- those honored veterans of combat, such as Audie Leon Murphy, from Kingston, Texas, who was the most highly decorated soldier of World War II. But this doesn't describe the majority of the people we honor today. What were they like? I think President Bush answered this question in one of his own Memorial Day addresses when he said: "We know that they all loved their lives as we love ours. We know they had a place in the world, families waiting for them, and friends they expected to see again. We know that they thought of a future, just as we do, with plans and hopes for a long and full life. And we know that they left those hopes behind when they went to war, and parted with them forever when they died." The President concluded with the unequivocal statement that we can never measure the full value of what was gained in their sacrifice. We live it every day in the comforts of peace and the gifts of freedom." In short, these were people just like those of us who are gathered here today to pay our respects.

In what is perhaps the most sincere and most often quoted memorial statement, Abraham Lincoln said, in his Gettysburg Address of 1863: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- and that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

To Lincoln's unparalleled statement, I would only add another verse from the Bible, found in the 15th Chapter of John, Verse 13: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Those we honor here today are our friends who extended that greatest love to us all.

Another of our Presidents, John F. Kennedy, made this vow in his Inaugural Address: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

These people we honor today kept their faith that their service would protect this nation and guarantee our freedoms. Today, our remembrance is the small price we pay to keep our faith with them. But we owe them so much more than mere remembrance. We owe them our willingness -- no, we owe them our vow -- to pick up the burden of responsibility when that burden falls to us. It is our responsibility to bear any burden, pay any price....

And so, for those who literally gave that last full measure of devotion to this country, may God bless their truly immortal souls, and may God Bless America.