Memorial Day Speech
by Deborah Y. Parker
Officer in the U.S. Army

May 26, 1997






The cost of that vision has been tremendous, for the periods of peace our country has enjoyed are few. The longest time of complete tranquility for our armed forces was the 23 years between World Wars One and Two. Since the Revolutionary War, more than 42 million men and women have served in America's military. More than 600,000 of those dauntless, selfless warriors died in combat.



So, we choose to remember the past because the payment for forgetfulness is dear -- sacrifice, service, duty ... and many times, injury and death paid by gallant, heroic men and women. Only fools would elect to forget so expensive a lesson.

But, what of the soldiers whose life blood has bought the liberty of our nation? They are all different, yet share a sameness that is deeper than the uniform they wear. They are black, white, man, woman, Hispanic, Indian, Asian, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Muslim, and a hundred other variations and combinations. What is most important -- regardless of race, creed, color or gender -- they are American.

When the men of the Army's 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments served at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, during the Indian Wars, they were given the most difficult duties, under the most rigorous conditions. Their bravery was legendary among the Indian nations. Their fabled unit became one of the historic cornerstones of the armed forces. Today, we read of the valor these soldiers displayed, the challenges they overcame, and only secondarily do we notice the root of their regimental nickname -- the Buffalo Soldiers -- a fanciful name given them by an enemy fascinated with their dark skin and hair.

During World War Two, when the nurses on Corregidor stayed to tend the wounded, they knew that facing them was inevitable hardship and possible death. They would be captured, imprisoned, starved, conceivably tortured or killed. They never faltered. No one, from General MacArthur down, questioned their right to stay behind. They were soldiers; that was the mission. At the end of the war, they were freed from the prison camps and, indeed, many of them had died. They were warriors and heroes. They were also women.

On May 2, 1968, an Army 12-man special forces team was inserted into the jungle west of Loc Ninh, Vietnam. They met heavy resistance from the enemy. Three times helicopters attempted to land and bring the team out, but each time they were driven off. A staff sergeant monitoring the operation from the unit's base station volunteered to return with another helicopter and try again. He realized all the team members were wounded or dead, so he jumped from the aircraft to assist the injured. Then the pilot was killed and his helicopter crashed. The staff sergeant called for help. When the next aircraft arrived, the soldier carried the wounded and dead to the helicopter. He was wounded himself over seven times, but he saved the lives of eight men that day. His name was Roy Benavidez.

An Army helicopter crashed in the middle of a dense maze of shacks and shanties in Mogadishu, Somalia. A growing number of enemy troops were closing in on the site where four critically wounded soldiers were trapped in the wreckage. Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart volunteered to go to the aid of their fallen comrades. Subjected to intense fire from automatic weapons and rocket- propelled grenades, they fought their way through the narrow streets to the crash site. They stayed and fought until their ammunition was exhausted. After Sergeant Shughart was killed, Master Sergeant Gordon took a rifle from the debris, handed it to an injured pilot, wished him "Good luck," and continued to fight until he, himself, was fatally wounded.

These courageous men and women, each so different in heritage and background, shared the common bonds of the armed forces -- duty and sacrifice. All of them reached a moment in their lives when race and religion, creed and color made no difference. What remained was the essence of America -- the fighting spirit of a proud, valorous people. They are soldiers who paid the price for freedom.


Copyright 1997 by Deborah Y. Parker. All rights reserved.