We set aside Veterans Day to honor the high price of sacrifice paid by generations of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen making up the ranks of more than 41 million Veterans who have served our nation since the American Revolution. They have valiantly carried forward the banner of Liberty since the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

But Veterans Day is distinguished from Memorial Day — the latter being set aside to honor uniformed American Patriots who have departed this life.

Veterans Day is primarily to honor and celebrate the millions of American Veterans in our midst — those we can thank in person for their service and sacrifice — and to thank the spouses and families who supported them through their service to our nation. Among them would be my own son, who completed his time as a Marine Infantry Officer and is now earning a graduate degree at the University of Virginia. I envy the fact that he and his family awaken every day in the cradle of American Liberty, surrounded by the historical legacy of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

However, for me, when contemplating the generations of Veterans who have honored their sacred oaths “to support and defend” the American Liberty “endowed by [our] Creator” — the unalienable rights of all people as affirmed in our Declaration of Independence and enshrined in our Republic’s Constitution — it is difficult to keep my gratitude in the present.

My life has been shaped by many distinguished Veterans, the most influential among them my father. Like him, many of them are no longer among us.

For context, General Douglas MacArthur offered this assessment of our Patriot Veterans in his notable May 1962 address to West Point cadets:

The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training — sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those Divine attributes which his Maker gave when He created man in His own image. … No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of Divine help, which alone can sustain him. However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind. … My estimate of him was formed on the battlefields many, many years ago and has never changed. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the world’s noblest figures; not only as one of the finest military characters but also as one of the most stainless. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy’s breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. … Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Of such noble sacrifice, 19th-century philosopher John Stuart Mill, in his essay “The Contest In America,” wrote: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

Today, too many Americans have no connection with or sense of our Veterans’ service and sacrifice and thus take for granted that their personal Freedom is made and kept by the exertions of better men and women than themselves.

When thanking the Veterans you know, embrace this observation from Army Veteran Charles Province:

It is the Soldier, not the minister, who has given us freedom of religion. It is the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to protest. It is the Soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the Soldier, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote. It is the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

At one point in their lives, every Veteran wrote a blank check made payable to “The People of the United States of America” for an amount up to and including their life.

To genuinely demonstrate our gratitude to our Veterans, here is my suggestion: Strive to be, first and foremost, an American citizen worthy of their sacrifice.

On this Veterans Day, and every day of the year, may God bless our men and women in uniform, who have stood in harm’s way, and may God bless the spouses and families who have supported them. For their steadfast devotion to duty, honor, and country, we, the American people, offer them our humble gratitude and heartfelt thanks. And anytime we recognize the service and sacrifice of an active-duty military member or a Veteran, remember there is a mother who should be recognized, too. It is very difficult for a mom to send off a child she brought into the world to face those who want to take him or her out.

To all our Patriot Veterans: Your example of valor — humble American Patriots defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty and in disregard for the peril to your own lives — is eternal.

“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

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