This speech will be given at a Memorial Day Service to my fellow paratroopers somewhere in Baghdad, Iraq.In a couple of weeks my older brother Leo will be celebrating a birthday. He's a retired Air Force Officer, and whose daughter is now a 2nd Lieutenant. He's sent me a couple of awesome care packages since I've been here.
It's not a quid-pro-quo, but for his birthday I decided I was going to send him 2 American flags. One of them hung in my office at the Joint Security Station (JSS) where I am most frequently located, and the other traveled with me when I convoyed to JSS Oubaidy and JSS SUJ. As I was leaving Battalion Headquarters to take the folded emblems of freedom to the Post Office I bumped into a former Platoon Sergeant who seemd to have a different kind of reaction to the flags than most others would. It occurred to me, just then, that a folded flag represents to many around me the supreme sacrifice of a friend, like SSG Bauer, who we lost in January.
As I was walking to the Post Office I was having an epiphany. These flags traveled with me to places where I was mortared a handful of times and rocketed several others. Then I also began to sense some more personal symbolism in how the 2 flags could represent the 2 Paratroopers (SSG Bauer and CPL Davis) from our Battalion who we lost this year in combat. The flags took on more significance to me than ever before. These flags represented the ultimate sacrifice that for me and you are more than just noble ideas. The flag on this Memorial Day is a symbol of the high cost of freedom which we personally know firsthand.
Early in the deployment my older brother and I discussed sending the 2 flags home. One would be a personal keepsake. The other is to be placed on top of Moosic Mountain that overlooks the best of beauty in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Although the motorists who look up and drive by it may never know the distance and personal sacrifice that the particular flag has travelled. Old Glory will fly high and like always, will represent the God-give freedoms we cherish: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
At the Post Office I was having an unscheduled appointment with a significant emotional event as all these thoughts rushed through my head. When the Soldier at the Post Office helped me place the flags into a box to send back to the States I remembered the words by a Chaplain prior to the deployment. They were nuggets of wisdom. "You will be changed when you go to war. Everyone has some software scrambled in the brains when you are touched by war. However, it can make you a better person." I wouldn't trade my experience at war for anything. It comes at great personal sacrifice to oneself and Family. Although you and I are changed, we are better people for knowing the men and women we've served and sacrificed with. We are better human beings because we know the cost of freedom more so than 99 percent of the American population who haven't had their "boots on the ground." Our character has been forged in the crucible of Baghdad, Iraq where we have been contributing to the on-going security gains to protect the freedoms that we indelibly share with the Government of Iraq.
Our National Pride will fly high on top of Moosic Mountain in Northeastern Pennsylvania. But someday it will become tattered from the wear and tear of the elements. All material things have a life-span. But the American values that we hold dearly are eternal. On this Memorial Day it is apropos to quote the final words of President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address. "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--that we here, highly resolve, that these dead shall not have died in vain--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 this earth."