A VETERANS’ DAY SALUTE FROM TWO AGING VETS

First, a little history. World War I – “The Great War” – which claimed the lives of nearly 40 million human beings (including nearly 117,000 Americans killed and more than 300,000 sick and wounded), ended with a mutually accepted “cease fire” on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. One year later, November 11th, 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared the date to be “Armistice Day.” Many of our allies in “The War to End All War,” called it “Remembrance Day.”

In 1926, Congress resolved to make every November 11th “Armistice Day” an occasion of “National observance.” In 1938 Congress passed a bill to make November 11, “Armistice Day” an official holiday. And finally, in 1954, Congress and President Dwight Eisenhower, designated November 11th as “Veterans Day”— an official federal holiday honoring all 18.5 American veterans.

On this Veterans’ Day, we encourage all Americans to remember November 11th as more than a day off work. No matter how you spend this holiday, we hope you will set aside some time to honor those who took the oath to “…support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” Since 1775, more than 1.3 million of our fellow “vets” have been killed in combat and nearly 2.9 million others were wounded while serving our nation.

Those who donned our country’s uniform deserve our gratitude for their selfless willingness to go in harm’s way to protect us all. They, and the families of all who made the ultimate sacrifice, should know we grieve for their loss, pray for their comfort and salute them on behalf of all our countrymen.

This year as we honor our veterans, we should remember our most recent losses, the 13 fallen heroes killed during the tragically flawed evacuation from Afghanistan. Here are their names. We urge you to clip this column and tape it to your refrigerator. Allow this to serve as an aide memoire to thank our Lord for them—and pray for their loved ones left behind:

· David Espinoza, Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Nicole Gee, Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps

· Darin Taylor Hoover, Staff Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps

· Hunter Lopez, Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Rylee McCollum, Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Dylan R. Merola, Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Kareem Nikoui, Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Daegan William-Tyeler Page, Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Johanny Rosario, Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps

· Humberto Sanchez, Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Jared Schmitz, Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

· Max Soviak, Hospital Corpsman, U.S. Navy

· Ryan Knauss, Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army.

We honor these heroes and the 18 others who were wounded by the same suicide bomber. What happened to them in the closing days of our nation’s longest war, should never have occurred.

Included in our prayers are the nearly 3.4 million young Americans—the brightest, best and bravest of their generation—who have volunteered to serve as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Guardsmen and Marines since 9-11-01.

On this Veterans Day, every single member of our armed forces is a volunteer. Thanks to their willingness to serve, there have been no further terror attacks against our homeland and no adversary has dared to attack us since that dreadful day two decades ago.

To paraphrase Matthew 25:21 and 2 Timothy 4:7: Well done our good and faithful warriors. You fought the good fight, you finished the race, you kept the faith. We thank God our country still has courageous young heroes who, when duty calls, are willing to step forward and say, “send me.”

Oliver L. North is a combat-decorated U.S. Marine, No.1 bestselling author, founder and CEO of Fidelis Publishing LLC and Fidelis Media LLC. Find out more about him at www.olivernorth.com. David Goetsch is a Marine Corps veteran, member of the Florida Veteran’s Hall of Fame, professor of business, Christian counselor, and author of 77 books. Find out more about him at www.david-goetsch.com. Order their new book, We Didn’t Fight for Socialism at Unisonbooks.com or Amazon.com.

David ValinskiNovember 9, 2021