MEMORIAL DAY – TELL THEIR STORIES

www.williamrussell.net ^ | 5/23/2013 | William Russell

[Bill Russell]

As I type my thoughts for this coming Memorial Day, it is my prayer that are worthy of surviving the flurry of other current events and will have an impact on those who read them and perhaps, will be referred to on other occasions and perhaps help drive the remembrance on future Memorial Days.

I always experience a bit of dread as I ponder how to say something of relevance that goes beyond the standard “honoring those who gave all for our freedom” which gets circulated by so many writers while so many Americans head to the beach or prepare for a barbeque. This is a day dedicated to the memory of those who gave all, but it is so often lost on those who did not know them. There are far too many people who do not know the sacrifices of our military. Even worse, they do not know why America is worth sacrificing for because it is no longer taught in our schools.

In his book “Who Are We?” Samuel Huntington notes that America’s sense of self is a continuous development. Throughout the 19th and into the early 20th century, the majority of Americans viewed themselves as being of their local or state community or the ethnic group from which they, or their parents, immigrated. The sense of being “American” did not truly coalesce until the 1920s after many of the returning veterans of the Great War joined the efforts of the veterans of the Civil War and Spanish-American War in pushing for school curriculums which taught the uniqueness and exceptionalism of the United States, the history of its founding, and struggle and price to maintain its freedoms. The fruit of their efforts continued into my primary and high school education in the late 1960s and through the 1970’s. Of course, it is thanks to the radicals of the 1960s and 70’s who are now writing the curriculums that our kids are currently studying, denigrating what is great about America and highlighting its flaws, that so many are cynical about the sacrifices this day commemorates.

This is the mission that we veterans must now undertake. We must fight on the local and state levels to ensure the curriculums in our public schools teach what is unique and great about our country. We must tell the stories of the heroes of our founding and struggles for freedom. As importantly, we must tell the stories of the heroes we served with. For it is their sacrifices, the sacrifices of the once living and breathing people we knew, which give real life meaning to the ideas for which they died. No matter how hard it may be, get out and tell the stories of those whose blood stained your hands after they took an unexpected round or blast. Tell the stories of those whose last breath you witnessed. But don’t just tell how they died. Tell how they lived, what they accomplished, and what lived on because of their sacrifices.

Tell them about Captain Humayun Kahn, the Base Force Protection Officer at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Iron Horse at Baqubah, Iraq. He gave his life preventing a car bomb from entering the base. He was at the gate that morning checking on the progress of its construction and its entry procedures. His work in the previous six weeks had transformed the gate from one easily crashed through by a vehicle into one that held that car bomb outside the gate and forced the driver to detonate the 500 lbs of explosives there instead of the dining facility as it served breakfast to well over 100 Soldiers. CPT Kahn was the only American Soldier killed in that bombing.

Tell them about Command Sergeant Major Steve Faulkenburg, the quintessential grizzled veteran and senior NCO of the 2-2 Infantry Ramrods. Tough as nails, he often walked with a painful limp from too many parachute drops and too many miles under a rucksack. He was responsible for ensuring individual training of the hundreds of Soldiers and their NCO leadership at all levels of his battalion. His was the first name reported to my station in the 1st Marine Division operations center during the Battle of Fallujah in November 2004. I had shaken his hand just a few hours before at the rehearsal and wished him well in the fight. He died leading his troops from the front as they crossed the breach into the city on the first night of the battle.

Also include Captain Sean Sims, a young company commander, who died as he moved on foot with his forward air controller team (all four of the Air Force’s forward air controller element attached to the Ramrods were wounded in the battle) into a building to get a better look at the battle so that they could get the air support effectively on target. His wife received his posthumous Silver Star. His executive officer, 1st Lieutenant Ed Ewan was also killed when he absorbed the brunt of the explosion of an RPG anti-tank round while in the turret of his Bradley Fighting Vehicle helping to direct the actions of his company in the fight. Both of these officers were killed while leading from the front, exposing themselves to the dangers of the battle field - all in the name of keeping their Soldiers alive.

The one First Infantry Division Soldier who also gave his life at Fallujah, whom I did not have the chance to meet personally, was SSG James Matteson a squad leader from the Brigade Reconnaissance Company. A couple of his soldiers told me how he had died, also leading from the front, when hit by an RPG round while manning the gun in the turret of his up armored HMMWV (Hummer).

Just as SSG Matteson’s Soldiers told this Major from the division staff about how much they respected and admired their squad leader, so too must the veterans who read this share the stories of the heroes they served with in unpronounceable places in all parts of the planet. It has been said that sacrifice without remembrance is wasted. Veterans must ensure the memories of those who gave so much are not forgotten. We must work to ensure that current and future generations learn what is unique and special about America and the men and women who gave all in its service. Those of us who have the good fortune to share the rest of our lives with our families and communities must ensure they know the price paid for their freedoms by people whom they will not know.

We must tell their stories.

William T Russell is a former Republican Congressional Candidate in the 12th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. He is an internationally published columnist and has been a featured guest on a number of national television and radio news shows. He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army and has served in Desert Storm, the Iraq War, and the Balkans. While in Iraq, he served as the Division Force Protection Officer for the 1st Infantry Division and was the division liaison officer to the 1st Marine Division during the Battle of Fallujah. He and his wife, Kasia, were both in the Pentagon on 9/11. He now lives in Orlando with his family.

[Oatka]

Lest we forget.