USA — Chairman’s Corner: Honoring the Nation’s Fallen Warriors

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2010 — Not long after the Civ­il War, Amer­i­cans pledged to hon­or those who, as Abra­ham Lin­coln put it, gave the last full mea­sure of devo­tion.

Be they from Lex­ing­ton and Con­cord; Get­tys­burg and Anti­etam; the Argonne For­est or the beach­es of Nor­mandy; Chosin and Inchon; Saigon and the Mekong Delta; Bagh­dad or Kan­da­har, we have kept that pledge every Memo­r­i­al Day, and right­ful­ly so. 

Today, a new gen­er­a­tion of Amer­i­can heroes is fight­ing for free­dom all across the globe. Some of them have giv­en that last full mea­sure, los­ing their lives to make a bet­ter life for all of us. It is the hard­est cur­ren­cy of all, once spent nev­er to be recouped, a debt we can nev­er tru­ly, ful­ly repay. 

This week­end is marked by events, large and small, across our nation to hon­or their mem­o­ry and rec­og­nize the sac­ri­fices of those fam­i­ly mem­bers and chil­dren they left behind. Please join me this Memo­r­i­al Day in remem­ber­ing, on behalf of present and com­ing gen­er­a­tions, the deep and abid­ing debt we owe to our fall­en and to their loved ones. 

Source:
Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)