Elder: Being the Best American You Can Honors Our Veterans
(Timea Peter/Dreamstime.com)
By Hank Elder
The Fourth of July, with its fireworks and fun, celebrates freedom.
Memorial Day, by contrast, calls us to a somber acknowledgment of the price of that freedom. For many Americans, the cost of freedom is personal, reflected in the memories of loved ones, a friend, a son or daughter.
On Memorial Day, many wear red poppies to honor those who gave their lives in service of our country. This tradition was inspired by Poet Moina Michael’s 1918 poem "We Shall Keep the Faith," which she wrote two days before the armistice ending the war was signed.
The poem responds to John McCrae’s "In Flanders Fields," the famous ode penned in grief a few years earlier to eulogize a former university student of his slain in battle.
Through her poem, Michael declares her commitment to keep the memory of the fallen alive and urges readers to join her. "We caught the Torch you threw," Michael wrote, "And, holding high, we keep the Faith/With All who died."
With our poppies and our efforts to continue serving our country, we honor our warriors' ultimate sacrifice and keep the faith that freedom will be defended by new generations.
Over 100 years later on August 26, 2021, 13 of our troops were killed at Abbey Gate by a terrorist’s bomb, their fragmented remains sent home from Afghanistan to be buried.
Serving in the Army, Navy and Marines, all but one were in their twenties and represented every corner of our country. As long as America stands, these names must be remembered as heroes who gave their all for others and for freedom:
Lance Cpl. David Espinoza
Sgt. Nicole Gee
Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover
Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss
Cpl. Hunter Lopez
Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola
Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum
Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui
Cpl. Daegan Page
Sgt. Johanny Pichardo
Cpl. Humberto Sanchez
Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz
Corpsman Maxton Soviak
The legacy of these contemporary patriots is bound up with the scarlet thread of sacrifice woven throughout America’s history.
That’s the poetic continuity of Memorial Day.
By observing Memorial Day, we faithfully respect those who gave their lives so that we might live ours freely — from the 18th Century to today.
It is right to do so.
As commander of the Ronald Reagan - Palisades Sons of the American Legion Squadron 283, I am observing Memorial Day by helping plan and participating in the Pacific Palisades Memorial Day parade.
Dozens of veterans, active duty servicemembers and civilians following a lone bagpipe will march through the community bearing 13 flags to represent the heroes killed at Abbey Gate — the final casualties of the War on Terror.
Awaiting our procession, 70 flags stand in Veterans Gardens, each representing a portion of the nearly 7,000 patriots lost fighting terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001.
As we deliver the final 13 flags, the whole cohort of War on Terror patriots will have been symbolically assembled, and we will move into our traditional Memorial Day ceremony to honor all fallen American heroes.
Alongside veterans and several fellow Pepperdine alumni, we drilled the holes and placed the sockets for the flags in preparation for the ceremony.
Memories of my experience at Pepperdine always renew my faith in the clause "for God and country" because of its spiritual foundations and patriotic training.
Both the American Legion Family and Pepperdine nurture a lifelong commitment to serving your country, and I am proud to join my colleagues in both groups this Memorial Day in our parade.
My prayer is that our field of flags will renew others’ passion for God and country.
The war on terror has come to an end, and this Memorial Day, we honor the last men and women killed in action to fight it as their legacies intertwine with that scarlet thread.
For without their heroism and valor, the beasts that threaten freedom would remain. Dictators and tyrants would continue their iron rule.
With bravery and selflessness, our fighting men and women have marched forward, time after time, into the menacing jaws of death.
Their just cause — for God and country — has opened up freedom’s path for many.
Just as the battle at the warfront was bigger than any one trooper, the effort to remember our heroes rests on all our shoulders.
They fought so we could celebrate our freedom, in freedom.
In our privilege, we must remember the price they paid. If we take the opportunity Memorial Day provides to remember our slain, we, the living, will find ourselves all the more rededicated to freedom's cause.
In that way, our patriots will never be forgotten and their patriotism endures.
As Michaels compelled us to do, we ought to carry the torch and renew our faith in freedom each Memorial Day.
We decide whether we will honor their sacrifice or not.
On Memorial Day we make that choice. Please participate in a remembrance event and then enjoy the barbecue and festivities that so many paid the ultimate price so you could enjoy.
To honor their memory, live, love and be the best American you can be.
Hank Elder is commander of the Ronald Reagan–Palisades Sons of the American Legion Squadron 283 (2023-24) and a Pepperdine University Seaver College graduate (1981).