The sky was a vibrant blue, dotted intermittently with white puffy cumulus clouds. Rosehill Cemetery was in its finest glory. The carpet of green grass thickened by recent rains, was adorned with thousands of flowers as friends and relatives decorated graves of loved ones who had gone before.
There was a slight breeze, enough to give life to the hundreds of American flags that had been placed on the graves of the over 1,300 veterans who have been buried at Rosehill Cemetery. Many volunteers had answered the call and helped with this honorable task.
As color guards assembled and advanced the great flag of the United States of America and the many other service flags past rows of tombstones, veterans of America’s many wars stood at attention and gave salute as the flags passed by.
Taking the podium to give the annual Memorial Day address was Lt. Col Dan Langan, Deput Commander of the 5th Maintenance Group at Minot Air Force Base. We are proud to publish excerpts from his moving and very appropriate speech.
I am honored to be among you on this Memorial Day. First observed 157 years ago, Memorial Day is a time-honored American tradition that brings those from all walks of life together for a common purpose: to pay homage to the courageous men and women who, in the words of President Lincoln, gave the Last Full Measure of Devotion for their nation. It is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of maintaining our Republic, and a celebration of the heroic service members whose sacrifices allow us to stand here today amongst our friends and family. From our earliest days, through the Revolution, Civil War, two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Global War on Terror, and conflicts that continue around the world today, a select few sons and daughters of this Nation continue to answer the call to stand in harm’s way. They are Airmen, Guardians, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Guardsmen… Americans, who were emboldened to step away from their familiar lives, to serve a cause bigger than any of us. Since the birth of our nation, over 1.3 million Americans have paid the ultimate price in the pursuit of freedom, a price that afforded us the families, the sense of community, and the prosperity that we now know—a debt that can never be repaid in full.
For decades, the Minot community has shared a special bond with the U.S. military. You have watched as Minot Air Force Base grew from a small unit of homeland defense interceptors to a force capable of striking targets anywhere on earth with the deadliest weapons mankind has ever devised. You have witnessed change, tragedy, and through it all, you have for decades welcomed those from all across the United States to become a part of this resilient and vibrant community. Some of you here, have served among the fallen, and carried their memory home from the front lines. Some of you are the family who watched their sons, daughters, and siblings travel to places far from the blue skies and green fields of North Dakota. Some of them, did not return. But all of us here are commemorating heroes, most of whom we have never met, yet we owe our livelihoods to them.
Like many who have served since the events of Sept 11 2001, today has a personal meaning to me. During the height of the Afghanistan and Iraq surges, I and many of my friends deployed into hostile areas on multiple occasions. I counted myself fortunate not to lose anyone I was close to, though through those difficult years I paid tribute to a tragic number of acquaintances and friends of friends. While I was deployed to Al Udeid AB in Qatar in 2010, we had the solemn duty to perform transfers of the remains of fallen servicemembers to the aircraft that would bring them on their final journey back to the U.S. I remember the ceremonies vividly, because over the course of that deployment I participated in them 59 times. Each time I stood at attention on a parking ramp scorched by the Arabian sun as the aluminum transfer cases, all draped with immaculately folded star-spangled banners, passed by under the salutes of those who trod across a few acres of noisy concrete to pay our respects. Each of those men and women wore a uniform. They all died for a cause, willingly embraced by millions of their comrades over the centuries. They all had people in their lives they cared about, they all had families, they all had parents. As a dad myself, I couldn’t help but think about the expression on each of their parents’ faces when they took their first steps. I thought about where each of them were when they first looked up at the stars on a clear night. I thought about how it must have felt for each to walk the familiar streets of their homes, whether it was a dusty, dirt road in North Dakota, or in downtown Manhattan. I thought about where they might have been when they volunteered to fight for an idea – an idea far bigger than themselves, and an idea for which Americans young and old have been fighting since the 18th century.
To all of you here today, as you leave and go about the rest of your day and your week, let the memory of the fallen serve to renew your commitment to our nation and our Minot community. Ask yourselves, “what must I do to be worthy of their sacrifice? What contribution can I make that will elevate the lives of those around me, even if only for a brief moment? What positive force within my sphere of influence can I exert to make my small corner of the world, of my community, a better place for me and those I care about?” And with that renewed commitment to each other and to those who serve, we can fulfill the solemn responsibility charged to each generation of Americans, to ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
Even though the community of Minot still pauses to remember those who died for their country on each Memorial Day, the number who take the time to attend the ceremony has dwindled over the years. We invite you to be part of next year’s Memorial Day Ceremony and join with others to remember those who died to preserve our way of life. Freedom Is Not Free….
