The following is the text of a speech I gave as the Grand Marshall of the 2004 Memorial Day parade in Lynbrook, NY.
I stumbled across it this time last year and thought I’d share it (again).
Memorial Day Address – Lynbrook, NY - 2004
Good morning.
I am humbled and honored to speak to you today, as we remember those who have made the supreme sacrifice in the name of liberty.
This observance began after the Civil War, and was originally known as Decoration Day, a time set aside to honor the nation's Civil War dead by decorating their graves.
Since then, Memorial Day has evolved into something that, in many cases, no longer quite resembles the original intent of General John Logan, who proclaimed that the day should be one for fitting services and testimonials of respect.
It has become a day away from the office, a day for barbeques and softball games, and this is great because it’s uniquely American. In fact, in some way, perhaps it is a most fitting manner in which to honor the fallen, as long as we remember that our lives of liberty, and leisure, and security are permitted to continue because of their sacrifice.
Before we were married, my wife and I visited the D-Day beaches and the American Cemetery in Normandy. I had just seen “Saving Private Ryan,” and of course, had the images of machine gun bunkers, barbed wire obstacles, and artillery batteries fresh in my head. When I arrived at Omaha Beach, I expected to see at least some remnant of these on the bluffs that overlook the beach.
However, with the exception of perhaps two intentionally maintained bunkers, I found the beach to be pristine. It was simply a beach; a place where one might do the things one does on the beach —enjoy the sand and the ocean, and the fresh salt air of the English Channel.
I considered then that there really could be no greater memorial, no better way of thanking the brave Americans and Allies who fell there than to restore life in Northern France to what it had been before the war. After all, what other reason did we have for entering the war and ultimately launching that invasion?
But, of course, we, the living, must also remember. As we go about our lives, we cannot forget the young men and women who, throughout our great nation’s history, so believed in the American Ideal that they gave their last full measure of devotion to protect it.
This is a day for honoring our fallen, and also, I believe, all those who have served.
I don’t believe that the police officers, firefighters, and emergency workers who died on 9/11 are heroes because they died, but rather because, on that day, like the days before, they went to work to perform their service to their fellow citizens.
So too, the brave men and women who have died in America’s defense are heroes, not for having died, but for having answered their nation’s call. And with American troops —as I speak— in harm’s way, away from our friendly shores, I believe it is altogether fitting and proper that we should take the time to remember them today, as well.
Moreover, let us, as a nation, dedicate ourselves to the task which is at hand – to defeating terror and destroying those who would commit it. Let us not allow that those who have fallen in this conflict will have died in vain.
Some have “forgotten” that we are at war. Some have managed to convince themselves that the world did not change on September 11th. Some of them have managed to get on with their lives and have had no difficulty in turning a blind eye to the ongoing sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of Americans make daily in an effort to protect us and perpetuate our nation’s freedoms.
There’s a phrase that I heard quite a bit right after September 11th: If we don’t get on with our lives, the terrorists will have won.
This is nonsense. My fellow Americans, we are at war. Success in war requires sacrifice. Success in this war will require resolve –not only on the part of the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere, but on the part of the entire nation.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe we’ve achieved that level of collective resolve yet, and I fear that nothing short of another catastrophe will be enough to jog the short attention span that infects so much of our nation. The enemy we face today wants us to get on with the lives that they so detest. Have we not yet learned that this is how our enemy operates?
What we should be saying to one another is: If we don’t dedicate ourselves to defeating this aggression against us, the terrorists will win.
Unfortunately, for some, it is easier to be weak than to be strong —easier to rationalize a way out of commitment and sacrifice.
The Greatest Generation did not earn that title by getting on with their lives after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
We will win this war on terror only if we, as a nation, have the resolve, the patience, the collective will to do so.
If we lack that commitment, I cannot say what may happen.
This conflict will surely take more time than we are accustomed to calculating. It will certainly require more sacrifice than we have already made. It may —I’m sorry to say— bring another attack on American soil against our fellow citizens.
Getting on with our lives will not win this war. Getting committed and getting serious about winning is the only way to achieve victory in this conflict
We must remember that America’s cause is just. Don’t allow others to convince you otherwise. Our objective is quite simply to rid the world of a strain of evil whose followers are intent on destroying us and our way of life.
I am confident that our great nation will overcome this threat.
How do we face an enemy who believes in his very soul that he is executing the will of his god? If our enemy is raised from childhood to believe that martyrdom will earn him countless rewards in the afterlife, how can he be defeated?
Somehow, for some 230 years, this land has produced generation after generation that has been up to such a task. I don’t believe this generation will be any different.
American colonists withstood the aggression of imperialist Britain. Our soldiers and Marines defeated the German shock troops of World War I and the Japanese banzai charges of World War II.
These and other adversaries we have faced have been bred and trained to fight. While our current adversary clearly employs tactics that are, to speak objectively, escalated from those we have faced in the past, I have no doubt that our forces and our nation will prevail in destroying them.
During the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian military leader, Pericles, spoke to his troops about the prospect of facing the Spartans in battle. The Spartans, after all, had been trained, even from childhood, in military arts and courage.
Pericles conveyed to his men that, “Others are brave out of ignorance, but the man who can most truly be accounted brave is he who best knows the meaning of what is sweet in life and of what is terrible, and then goes out undeterred to meet what is to come.”
How has our country continually found, within herself, the truly brave men and women necessary to protect the ideals of freedom and liberty? Why is it that our valorous men and women find it within themselves to go out undeterred? Why, in this land of comfort and prosperity, do those few rather choose lives of deprivation, discomfort, and danger, and possibly death?
I believe —though this belief is somehow less fashionable than it once was— that these Americans truly love their country and what it represents to the world. These men and women have faith in the virtue of this great experiment in democracy, liberty, and freedom.
And they have concluded that this nation is —still, today— worth their sacrifice. They believe that the defense of our noble nation is a cause worthy of their time and talent.
They are willing to leave behind families, jobs, and homes because our nation must be defended.
They realize that the phrase, Freedom isn’t Free isn’t an idle slogan. It is a call to service and a call to arms. These Americans realize that freedom has a price, and it is often a terrible price — but one they have willingly paid on our behalf.
They share the sentiment of Thomas Paine, who long ago prayed, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may know peace.”
We must remember that our country is not only great, but also good. I’m afraid that too many have lost sight of that fact. There are those who have convinced themselves, despite America’s history of virtue, charity, and sacrifice, that our nation is somehow at fault for what has transpired over the past three years.
Our great country is indeed good, and that is why our enemies hate us and wish to destroy us — because ours is a good country, and our enemies are evil. We are discouraged nowadays from thinking in this way. Our children are taught that Western and American civilization is in no way superior to any other civilization. Well, that notion is false.
We must not be afraid to say that ours is the greatest, freest, most tolerant, most charitable nation that this world has ever known. We must also take care to remember that America did not achieve this position by chance, but by the grace of Almighty God and the sacrifice of those who have dedicated some portion of their lives to protecting this precious gift.
Remember that we are at war. Remember why we are at war. Our President —my Commander in Chief— has chosen not to ignore the aggression against us, but rather to confront it and defeat it.
Don’t allow yourselves to forget, as many have, that Freedom isn’t free.
Before I let you get on with your holiday, I’d like to share with you the words of a great American, far more eloquent than I, who said:
We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies. In defense of the freedom that is our birthright, for the protection of our property, and against violence committed against us, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed has been removed, and not before.
Those are the words of our third President, Thomas Jefferson, in 1775.
It is my sincere prayer that, when another two-hundred-plus years have come and gone, another American Marine, Soldier, Sailor or Airman will have the privilege of addressing the patriotic citizens of Lynbrook, and that he or she may do so in a time of peace, reflecting gratefully on the words of our 43rd President, George W. Bush who said:
“We will not waiver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and Freedom will prevail.”
May God bless you all, and may He continue to bless the United States of America.
Read more of Danger Close with Brian O’Leary at brianoleary.substack.com
Brian O’Leary is a retired Marine Corps colonel who served for 30 years, including combat deployments to Somalia and Iraq, and command of an infantry battalion in Afghanistan. Additionally, he has spent 25 years in the financial services industry. Brian earned his BA in English from Penn State University and his MA in National Security Studies from the US Army War College.
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