Columns
Monday, May 17, 2004
honoring fallen heroes
As a Navy veteran and active member of the American Legion, I have always held Memorial Day in special reverence. But, this year, Memorial Day arrives with extraordinary power and poignancy. Once again, our nation is at war. Many brave men and women of our Armed Forces, including more than a dozen Iowans, have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, on the Mall in Washington, D.C., the National World War II Memorial is being dedicated on the Saturday before Memorial Day. It is a stunningly beautiful monument, located midway between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. It includes a curved wall bedecked with 4,000 gilded stars to commemorate the more than 400,000 Americans who gave their lives. Organizers of the dedication ceremony on May 29 expect one of the largest gatherings of World War II veterans in one place since the war ended in 1945. Last month, I had the privilege to attend a small ceremony at Capitol View Elementary School in Des Moines honoring Iowans who have fallen in Iraq. Fifth graders at the school created a memorial quilt, which they presented to Olivia Smith, the widow of Chief Warrant Officer of Bruce Smith, whose helicopter was shot down near Fallujah last November. I was so impressed by the respect that those schoolchildren felt for Chief Warrant Officer Smith and the other fallen heroes. And I was touched by the concern they showed toward Mrs. Smith and the other family members who attended the ceremony. Indeed, our entire Iowa family is united in our respect for the Iowans – for all Americans – who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also respect the profound loss endured by their families and loved ones. In each of our nation’s wars, ordinary Americans have stepped forward to show extraordinary qualities of courage and selflessness. We owe a debt to all our war veterans, but we owe an especially profound debt to those who fell in battle. At Gettysburg, President Lincoln described this debt in these immortal words: “It is for us the living . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” As the saying goes, “freedom is not free.” In conflicts going back to the Revolutionary War, many hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending our national independence and individual freedoms. Let us keep these patriots in our thoughts and prayers this Memorial Day.
