Yes, you picked up on everything I intended to convey with this thread. As we look back, let's not forget to look ahead: the Islamic theofascist horde is just a reminder that free peoples can never secure their safety with any permanence. It is also our own continual sacrifice and resolve that will keep us free, not only something our parents and grandparents have done.
In honor of my father, who earned a Purple Heart over Rumania in a B24 when it was hit by a flak burst in 1944. My dad returned, and so did his brothers and my grandfather. May the freedoms their sacrifices defended never be relinquished by a future generation who fails to serve and protect.
We must never let our own children believe that any prior sacrifices were "sufficient" that they can relax their guard.
Most are gone now, in fact, my last living uncle is 86 or so and near the end. I remember as a kid seeing the photos he had taken after liberating a couple concentration/death camps. A sight I shall never forget. I would like to think that instilled in me the spirit of Never Forget to some degree. God Bless Uncle Harold. One of his daughters and my cousins married a Viet vet and directly experienced the effects of Agent Orange and lost a daughter after many years of suffering from birth defects.
Wars fought on foreign shores and lands do still reach out and touch the faithful huddled around the home fires of FReedom. We must tend those fires vigilantly lest others exterminate them and vanquish the memories of those who gave and lost so much for all of us.