Honoring Our Veterans – By President James Roberts

Honoring Our Veterans

By James C. Roberts

In a sense every day is Veterans Day at the American Veterans Center. Day in and day out it is our mission, and our privilege to honor our veteran’s legacy of service and sacrifice and to preserve that legacy for future generations.

I say “privilege” because for my colleagues and me it has been an honor these past 16 years to meet and get to know hundreds of veterans, from Frank Buckles, the last surviving veteran of World War I to Clint Romesha who recently received the Medal of Honor for valor displayed in Afghanistan.

It has been a humbling experience to walk in the midst of this company of heroes, drawn from many regions, races, ethnic traditions and creeds, each with his or her own personal experiences, but with their stories all united by a common theme: They answered their country’s call to serve.

I have also gotten to know many future veterans, active duty personnel of today’s military and they are also an exceptional group. Volunteers all, they serve their country in remote outposts around the world, often in harsh conditions far from home, from the searing heat of the deserts of Iraq to the bitter cold of Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush. Proud to serve, they do their duty out of sight, and all too often, out of mind, to Americans on the homefront.

Notwithstanding all the problems that face our country and our society, we should be proud of the fact that in the long history of our Republic, America has never produced a finer fighting force than today’s military. At the American Veterans Center’s annual conference over Veterans Day weekend more than three hundred future military leaders, cadets and midshipmen, representing all five of the nation’s military academies plus cadets and midshipmen from 10 other college ROTC programs, will gather to hear from some of these heroes spanning seven decades of military service.

Among these are Chester Nez, last surviving member of the original Navajo Code talkers of World War II, pilots from the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, veterans of D-Day, Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal; veterans of the Chosin reservoir in the Korean war, two Medal of Honor recipients who served with selfless heroism in Vietnam, heroes of Fallujah and other brutal battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, Navy SEALS, the first African-American pilot and General in the Marine Corps, some of the first women to achive flag rank in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, just to name a few.

The future military leaders in attendance will hear amazing stories of heroism from heroes who will state modestly that they were just doing their duty. More importantly, they will learn about the virtues of military service in action – of courage and character, self-sacrifice, patriotism, duty and love. The greatest virtue, as St Paul reminds us, is love. It is love – love of comrades, love of country – that, throughout our military history has motivated seemingly ordinary people to do heroic things.

Also in attendance at the AVC conference will be students from many local high schools and they too are an important focus of our mission. We live in a time when only about one percent of the population is serving in the military, meaning that the vast majority of our citizens have little or no involvement with our armed forces. This disconnect bodes ill for the long – term future of our country.

Failing the reintroduction of the draft -– a bad idea for many reasons — we need to do more, much more, to acquaint our people, especially our young people with our veterans, and their legacy of service and sacrifice, of the great debt that we owe to them for keeping us free.

We also need to remind them that, as Ronald Reagan remarked, freedom is only one generation away from extinction, and that our liberties must be defended anew by each generation.

In honoring our 27 million veterans, we not only pay homage to the past; we also morally fortify ourselves to face the challenges of the future.

The author served as a Naval officer during the Vietnam War and now serves as President of the American Veterans Center.