My dad Frank Guy Arrigo, a WW2 Veteran, he was a member of the 503rd paratroopers. He was a T/5, when the 503rd re-took Corregidor, and when he jumped that day; he carried the US flag with him. While under sniper fire on Feb 16, 1945, my dad and PFC Clyde Bates climbed a flagpole to hoist our flag on Corregidor. The original flag had been burned prior to the surrender of Corregidor to the Japanese on May 6th 1942.
My husband’s Uncle Ralph Keasling was a member of the famous Merrill’s Marauders, who fought their way through the jungles and mountains of Burma. My husband Dennis, roaming around out there taking photos, did his 4-year stint in the Air Force, doing A & E on the Mace Missile system, on Okinawa during the Vietnam War. As you can see we have a proud history of fine military men in our family.
We are here today to honor and thank the men and women of our military, who love their country dearly. They endure all the hardships of war when they are called into harm’s way, to defend our way of life, under conditions you or I would find horrendous. From the frozen Arctic; to humid jungles; to arid deserts, they go to defend our liberty and freedom whenever duty calls them.
Many of them make less than minimum wage, some are even on food stamps. Yet they go into harm’s way when their country calls, because they love America.
Some come back from war mentally damaged, others come back disabled, some return in flag draped coffins, some don’t come home at all, because there isn't enough left of them to be found, still others are buried at sea. Many of these brave souls don’t come back home at all, because they lie in hallowed graves of foreign lands, in countries they went to free like France.
When our Fathers and Grandfathers came back from WWII we welcomed them home as heroes. When our fathers came back from Vietnam, we sat silent while the so- called “Peace Marchers” spit at them, threw, blood, urine and feces on them. Called them Baby Killers and all kind of horrid vile names. Sir Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil-- is that good men do nothing.”
Will we sit silent and watch as our sons and daughters come back from Iraq to the same sort of treatment from the so called “Peace Marchers”? ---------I don’t think so.
Sam Adams said, If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.
Our Forefathers at Valley Forge fought and shed their blood that we could be FREE of tyranny. We have sent our men and women to war, repeatedly to free other repressed and brutalized people. People who are being killed and tortured by their governments for daring to dream of the Freedoms that are found only in America.
America is the greatest nation on earth. Through our free capitalistic society, we have become a very wealthy nation, despite being OVER TAXED by our own government.
AMERICA hasn't been stingy with her wealth either. When famine and disease decimate other countries, America is almost always the first - and sometimes the only - nation in the world to provide aid. America leads the world in shipping food, medicine, doctors, and medical equipment in to countries ravaged by their own civil wars.
Time after time, America has called upon her Sons and Daughters to help free nations like France from the heels of ruthless brutal dictators like Adolph Hitler. She is once again calling on them to keep not only our own people safe but to help free the Iraqi people from the brutal, barbaric dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
After all we’ve done to help other nations less fortunate, we are still called selfish, arrogant and BULLIES by other nations, dictatorships and rogue states around the world.
America is not perfect. BUT she is DARN near perfect. No where on the face of God’s green earth, can you speak as freely as you can in America. No where else, can you dream big dreams, and make them come true, with hard work and determination.
John Wayne once said "Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be."
And neither should we.
Remember FREEDOM ISN’T FREE, it is paid for with the blood of our men and women in our Armed Forces. Keep them in your prayers.
And before the 9th Circus Court of Appeals can totally ban GOD……….
GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS our Military and GOD BLESS George W BUSH!
If we can rev up a rally in Daytona, I'd love to read it to the gang! We're out every Tuesday, supporting our troops against the peace weenies, but that's not really the forum for speeches!
Good Job!