Veterans Day was established on November 11 to recognize all veterans who honorably served in the U.S. military. It acknowledges the armistice ending WWI which took effect on 11-11-1918 at 11:00 am. Ed Rees. a congressman from Emporia, Kansas and a contemporary of my grandfather Ed Davis from Emporia, introduced a bill to make the date a federal holiday. It was signed into law in 1954 by another Kansas native, President Eisenhower.
My great uncle returned home to Kansas suffering
the ill effects of the trench gas of WWI and two uncles never recovered from
the horrors of war suffered in the Pacific campaign of WWII, leaving my
grandparents with the distinction of being Gold Star parents.
I graduated college and immediately began
working as an Industrial Engineer at a Hercules solid rocket propellant plant at
the outset of the Vietnam War. My draft
papers arrived as the war was winding down and were subsequently cancelled, so
I was never exposed to war combat. Just
returning to the D-Day invasion and the fateful battle of Ramelle at the end of
the renowned film, Saving Private Ryan, on the cusp of another Veterans Day
remembrance was enough of an emotional roller coaster that I cannot imagine
what any veteran experienced in actual combat.
The greatest generation that lived through the
Great Depression and won WWII is now all but gone. I witnessed a deplaning honor flight in
Washington DC years ago and it was very emotional. Many were just then beginning to tell their
story. And it would be a great travesty
to forget their immense sacrifice. Every
generation has their own unique challenges and one of ours is to constantly remind
ourselves that freedom is but one generation away from being lost. And freedom is not free.
Captain Miller and his band of brothers we sent
on a mission after D-Day to locate and bring back Private James Ryan, whose
three brothers had all been killed in action.
He had been ordered to return to his mother’s side on an Iowa farm as her
only surviving son. The film opens with
an elderly Private Ryan visiting the Normandy Cemetery at the cross of Captain
Miller who saved Ryan’s life but lost his.
Captain Miller’s dying words to Ryan were “James. Earn this.
Earn it.” The gut-wrenching
response at the grave site as his family stood aside was “I’ve tried to live my
life the best that I could. I hope it
was enough.” The film switches back to
this scene at the end when Ryan’s wife approaches and he implores her “Tell me
I’m a good man.” His wife replies, “You
are.”
Small acts of decency in the hellish horrors of
combat can be the only saving grace of humanity. On the 11/11/2021 observation of Veteran’s Day,
may we all understand the sacrifice that has carried us to this day.
And vow to “Earn This. Earn It!”
OPENING SCENE:
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