Join Ed Martin
3rd Congressional District Candidate

And

Joe Frank
American Legion Past National Commander &
Chairman Of Veterans For Ed Martin

for a Veterans Appreciation Rally

Tuesday, October 19
6:00-8:00 Pm

Surdyke Harley-Davidson
2435 Highway 67
Festus, Mo 63028

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For More Information Contact The Campaign - 314-256-1776

For a variety of reasons, I have a special place in my heart  for active duty military and for veterans.  Among those reasons is the fact that vets have a unique wit about them.  We lawyers tend to be circumspect, being officers of the court.  That circumspection can become a kind of obscurity in which you can hear many words and not quite know what has been said.  Generally veterans do not suffer from this malady.  Vets are able to call upon an emotional reservoir that has been distilled by training and hardship.   They tend to be direct and plain-spoken.  Their passion is not divided or ambiguous, not toward their faith, their family or their nation.  They have a raucous cheer about them.  It is impossible to hang out with a group of veterans and not be inspired to think or laugh.  Usually both.

Sunday I joined local Boy Scouts in ceremonies at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.  Under the hot sun Boy and Girl Scouts, along with family members and other patriots fanned out to place a single flag on the resting place of the thousands of service men and women interred there.

If you visit the cemetery, pause to read the inscriptions, particularly those made over the last few years.  The aforementioned wit and passion is on display even after their earthly lives have ended.  One gravestone has a statement of priority:  “LOVED GOD LOVED HIS FAMILY AND HIS COUNTRY.”  This sentiment encapsulates so much of what I’ve come to know about our veterans.

Spouses of veterans are laid to rest at Jefferson Barracks, and you can find beautiful inscriptions that reflect the lifelong love we who are married aspire to have.  Some captions illuminate the fact that Vets don’t take themselves too seriously (click here to see more markers).

We have tremendous freedom in this nation, freedoms that are worth protecting.  Each white stone in these cemeteries reserved for our service men and women indicates an individual who put at risk life and limb against the threats to our nation of laws.  The countless hours of toil and deprivation endured deserve to be honored on special days to be sure, but each day we must honor them as we make decisions that will affect the lives of those they have left behind.

It is for the children, grandchildren and generations beyond that the heat, cold, hunger, sweat and pain was not too great a burden to bear.  Their legacy deserves honor and the purpose of their sacrifice must be fulfilled.

Thanks to our Veterans..

Ed

They pointed to maps, then pointed out the window then back to the map, or a photo.  I followed the narrative that began in 1826 when it was established as an infantry school to compliment training at West Point.  As America expanded westward the Army provided law to the new territories, “…not only to protect the settlers from the Indians, but also to protect the Indians from the settlers and from each other.”  In time Jefferson Barracks became the staging area from which the Army would project troops to the west.  In a few years, it was the largest post in America.

Joe Frank, a wounded Vietnam veteran shared with me stories of the “citizen soldiers” who passed through Jefferson Barracks.  Great Generals – Grant, Lee, Eisenhower and others have served and trained  in Missouri.  Tens of thousands more flowed through Jefferson Barracks, officers and enlisted noted less by history but known to their families as brothers, sisters, sons and daughters to serve as champions of our nation.

The American military is unique in its composition.  There is no more refined meritocracy than among America’s armed forces.  The British raised regiments and fleets as nobles invested in the men, material and training, receiving payment from the crown or by confiscating property from conquered lands or ships.  Other societies populated the ranks of their commissioned officers – such as they are – based on loyalty to party or by selecting closely related kin.  In these militaries enlisted members are typically poorly trained, poorly outfitted and poorly cared-for conscripts upon whom the burden of being a soldier falls like a boot on the neck.  Pressed into service, these men will oppress as they are oppressed.

In contrast, American officers and enlisted come from all walks of life, all economic strata.  Dirt farmers and accountants flooded the beaches of Anzio and Okinawa.  Bankers and ranch hands stood in ranks at Appomattox. Physicists and roofers work together on the  tarmacs of Diego Garcia and the decks of frigates, destroyers and carriers all over the globe.  Their motives vary – being a serviceman is a better gig now than it was in Valley Forge, but every uniformed man and woman knows that it may come upon them to fight. American servicemen are well regarded by their fellow citizens.  We see them as our friends and families.  We idealize them as protectors of liberty.

My brother is a Marine, and I am very proud of him.  I have a Kevlar “pot” of his, and it reeks of the sweat from those hot theaters where he and his comrades close with the enemy.  He is smart and driven.   He would be a success in anything he chose to do, but he chose the life of low pay and grinding sacrifice in his beloved Corps for his beloved Country.  To him and the vets I have had the privilege to meet, service is a privilege and an honor.

Jefferson Barracks is home to a unit of the Missouri National Guard.  It is also the final resting place Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen and Merchant Mariners.  Many of them came home after America’s wars and the flag that draped their casket honored an old man or elderly woman whose end came long after their particular conflict ended.  Other flags envelop a hero lost in battle, a life cut short when they were the protective wall made flesh when harm threatened their people.

Others still are like Joe, and left part of their life in a distant mud hole.  Where his place in Jefferson Barracks will be is not yet known – and may it be unknown for many years –  but still he has already given much for his home, and he continues to give.

The gravestones of Jefferson Barracks are so white that on a day with any sun the sheen will hurt your eyes.  This is fitting in a sense, that this orderly stone garden where our protectors are laid would by its nature induce an American look for a moment, then look away in honor and reverence.

The Savior taught us that greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.  Memorial day is the day where we ought to commemorate not just the sacrifice, but the greater love of these men and women who carried arms and tended wounds  in our service . I find inspiration in the love they had for their comrades and their liberty.  My brother loves his men, Joe loved his fellow soldiers and continues to look out for their well-being to this day.  Both love their country in a way not many of us experience.  I am grateful for them because they have studied war so that my children can live in peace and freedom.  My Memorial Day prayer is that I can match their devotion to our country.

God bless you, Veterans. God rest the fallen.

Ed

Today is Veteran’s day, and this morning my family and I awoke free from the kind of worry that plagues fathers and mothers around the world.  My family has enjoyed many, many restful nights under the watchful eye of the “rough men” – and women – who will do all within their lawful power to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies and bring relief to our friends.

There is no secular institution on earth that has done more to bring peace to the world than the American military.  There is no greater ally, no more ferocious enemy.  The veterans in my life are to an individual sober, kind, raucous and patriotic.  They will do anything to help you; they are hard servants. They embody the best that Americans are and always have been.

Today, I especially remember my brother, an active duty Marine, who has served so courageously over the past 10 plus years. He is my hero.  To all of you who are serving, or have served this country honorably , thank you for your service. God Bless you and God Speed your mission.

*This quote appears to be a mash-up between words spoken by Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell.  I think it is greater than the sum of its parts.