MEMORIAL DAY 2008

May 26, 2008 

Memorial Day provides an opportunity for Americans to put things in perspective. Next to the high cost of freedom, everything else seems less expensive. What’s four or five-dollar-a-gallon gas compared to the loss of one American warrior’s life? But as the demographics of America and its war dead change, are we in danger, not that many years from now, of undervaluing those who make the ultimate sacrifice in our nation’s wars?

Every year, millions of American and foreign tourists visit the National World War II, the Korean War Veterans, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorials in Washington, DC. Located between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, they stand in tribute to brave men and women who gave their lives for their country. Few are unimpressed with the memorials and what they represent. It’s difficult not to come away from them with a profound appreciation of the price Americans have paid for our freedom. 

Each memorial is unique. Each, in its own way, reflects the people they commemorate and the times during which each war took place. All three memorials, however, have many things in common; one is that they honor millions of citizen soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who were conscripted into military service by their country.

From 1917 through 1972, military conscription, “the draft,” ensured that men from all walks of life served in the armed forces. I was drafted in 1965. Various deferments allowed some to avoid military service in time of war. Vietnam in particular hit lower income families more than others. Still, the draft and the large number of war dead, compared to more recent wars, ensured that few communities escaped the shared sacrifice—a sacrifice that continues to bind Americans together today. The millions of living veterans and the family members of living and deceased veterans maintain a large reservoir of support for our current warriors. And they keep the spirit of Memorial Day alive.

But World War II and Korean War veterans are dying at the rate of several thousand a day.  It won’t be too long before they, like the veterans of World War I, (all but one) are gone. Vietnam Veterans, like me, will be around another twenty or thirty years. After we’re gone, only veterans of the Gulf War, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, and future wars will remain.

I sometimes wonder when I drive by the three memorials on the Mall, if they will be the last of their kind. Will post Vietnam War veterans ever have memorials of similar stature and importance? Will the all-volunteer US armed forces and the diminishing numbers of casualties that result in high-tech wars change how future generations will come to value those who make the ultimate sacrifice? Will the military still be the most respected institution in American society?

No one, of course, knows what the future will bring. In the absence of a nuclear war or another large-scale conventional war with an equally powerful adversary, both currently unlikely possibilities, far fewer men and women will die in military service than did prior to 1975. While this is certainly a good thing in and of itself, it doesn’t mean there will be fewer wars or that they necessarily will be less threatening to our freedom. It does, however, raise the possibility that future generations of Americans may not have the same attitudes about the military or the nation’s deceased veterans they remember on Memorial Day they have today.

Already we see communities that try and close military recruiting stations, colleges that reject Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Programs and high schools that reject military speakers. And we have far fewer politicians who have served in the military. The absence of compulsory military service is one of the reasons. What will it be like twenty and thirty years from now?

I do not suggest that we should reinstate the draft, however. The all-volunteer military is a good thing. It works. It provides a professional armed force with the high-tech skills needed to prevail on the modern battlefield. The more wars are fought by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), precision guided munitions and robots, however, the more the human element is devalued. There will always be the heroism and valor of soldiers on the ground meeting the enemy on close combat, just less of it.

What I do suggest, is that we have to prevent the widening gulf between the military and American Society that is an inevitable side effect of high-tech wars fought by professionals. How can we do that?

We can do that by inculcating in our children and grandchildren the patriotic love of America that many young people seem to lack today and that is decreasingly taught in our schools. We can do that by instilling in them traditional moral values that reject moral relativism. We must make them understand that sooner or later military force is necessary to preserve our freedom, and in today’s world, we can not always wait until we are attacked to defend ourselves.

We must make sure that our military history and the sacrifices of our military veterans, living and dead, is understood and appreciated by each succeeding generation. How many of today's high school or college students know what happened at places like Bastogne, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir, or Khe Sanh?

No one should grow up in American believing that the military is where you end up when you don’t get a good education or you’re running away from something. No one should grow up in America without an appreciation of what others did on their behalf.

America's armed forces are where you go when you love your country and you want to defend it. America's armed forces are all that stand between us and those committed to destroy us. This Memorial Day don't just think about those who have given their lives for us in the past. Think about those who have yet to do so and those who may not appreciate what that means.