A letter for those who can’t speak for their ultimate sacrifice

Sacrifice

“Though I am no longer physically with you, my memory should never die out. I didn’t serve to receive an honor but my sacrifice has become trampled on. This great nations sons and daughters, husbands and wives, and fathers and mothers are wondering…was it a mistake?”

We give these great American’s one day — or a weekend at best — for making a sacrifice that secured our freedoms. Yet, we diminish it by turning it into a BBQ, a retail sale, or a drunken charade on the lake. Our actions speak to them with how we intentionally demonstrate our remembrance of them every year. We have spit on their “graves” over the last several years with not standing firm in the rights that they served, fought, and ultimately died for.

We have an opportunity to make a correction to our recent behavior. To change the course of our nation that has drifted away from the direction we should be on.

I remember the day I stood in the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) and raised my hand. I swore to an OATH…I swore to the American people that day…I swore to myself. I didn’t even fully understand the weight of what I was doing, but I knew inside I wanted to be something greater than I had been. For most veterans, we still honor that oath, for those that have died before and after us.

We are sorry that your sacrifice is not being honored like it should. We will do better, I will do better, and we intend to restore that precious country on a hill you died defending.

Most of us have lost someone we know serving. Me, only steps away from them at their last breaths. I carry your memory in my heart. We remember you like it was yesterday when we drive past “Old Glory” flying in the breeze. When we hear our National Anthem being sang. When we drive past a funeral and see a flag draped over the casket. The one memory many can never escape is when we lay our heads down to sleep and we dream. Sometimes dreams of the good times, but some nights its the nightmares surrounding your departure.

I will leave you with this. Please return the blessing of freedom you have and show our nations heroes past and present that you are forever grateful for their sacrifice. To you warriors who are unable to speak, thank you and God speed.