Article From Steve Pearce On Veterans Day
As Printed November 11, 2009 In Local Newspapers Around The District
In this career-driven age, it is easy to be thankful for a day off while forgetting why we have one. Veterans Day is, unfortunately, a prime example of this. We sleep in, spend time with family and perhaps put out the flag. But we often forget about the men and women whom the holiday honors. We forget that our veterans didn't get to take days off of work.
For Medal of Honor recipients Drew Dix of Pueblo, Colo., and Hiroshi Miyamura of Gallup, there was no day off in Vietnam in 1968 or in Korea in 1951, when they braved nightmarish terrors in order to save their brothers in arms.
For Margarito Trujillo, who spent more than five decades quietly living with wounds suffered while in captivity as a prisoner of war, there was no day off in Korea in 1952.
And for me, there was no day off in Vietnam in the early 1970s, as I flew missions over a land where freedom was a foreign concept.
But this dedication is not just a trait from the bygone days of wars that occurred decades ago. Consider the recent case of a young man from New Mexico.
Staff Sgt. Scott Lilley of the U.S. Air Force suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in Iraq and has never asked for a day off. Despite living with shrapnel still lodged inside him, Lilley has continued to tirelessly serve his country as an instructor at Lackland AFB.
Lilley's dedication to his service is a prime example of why I've fought for a policy which I've long believed in. Our young men and women who wish to continue in the military after they have suffered severe injuries should always be allowed to do so. They should not be forced out, like many were during my time in Vietnam.
These brave wounded warriors have never asked for a day off. It would be the height of injustice for our government to insist they take their whole lives off from a profession for which they have volunteered.
Lilly and the millions of others like him who have volunteered and sacrificed for us need to be remembered today.
In houses across America, uniforms hang in the closets of men and women who have answered the call so that America could become what it is today. And in cemeteries around the world, white stone markers stand as the only reminders of those who never came home, having sacrificed their lives so that we could continue to live with the freedoms that we cherish. For the thousands of men and women fighting for liberty across the world, there is no day off from the daily job of risking their lives.
Risking their lives. We hear those words so often that it becomes difficult not to ignore them.
But this Veterans Day, take a few minutes to think about what that means. Young men and women look death in the eye every day to protect all the freedoms we enjoy. Take a few minutes to discuss your thoughts with your family, your children or your grandchildren. Say a prayer of thanksgiving for their sacrifice and the families who sacrificed along with them.
Today is one of the least-remembered holidays of the year, yet one of the most important. Please make it a point to express your gratitude to those who stand and those who have stood ready to die for us each and every day, year after year.
