They endured the horror of the quiet little town in Pennsylvania during July of the hot summer of 1863.
They held on during a hellacious attack at a quaint little town known as Marne, they held the ground in the summer of ’18, the Rock of the Marne.
My predecessors defended a stunning Romanesque town with a Medieval Cathedral named Bastogne during a 7 day siege in the middle of a brutal December winter in 1944. Nuts, huh?
They took the brunt of relentless waves of attack in a frozen place called Chosin, 17 days of frozen hell, 1950.
They patrolled the sicky humid triple canopy in a place most Americans didnt even know existed in 1967, becoming legends to the enemy, even if unknown to most Americans back home.
They landed in a hostile country in an attempt to free our citizens being held captive in 1980.
They blitzed into Iraq, a thug country that needed an ass kicking, and they delivered in 1991, this was only Act 1 and we all knew it.
They flew into a hot LZ in the Arma Mountains of Afghanistan, 11,000 feet up an unknown rock called Takur Ghar in the Spring of 2002.
They made the Iraqi town of Fallujah a household name a few years later.
The world found out on May 2d 2011 you can run but you can’t hide, Americans will come for you and cash your check.
They are the best of what being an American soldier is. Dog faced grunt, dirty boots and foul mouthed, rifle in hand, Jarhead, Snake-Eater and a few more unsavory names.
On this day I remember those who went before, those who are there now and those that will drive on tomorrow.
ATW
AW
(Image Credit DVIDHubs.net: Master Sgt. David Sims’ wife and children spot him on the other side of the Braves dugout and run to reunite with him. Sims returned from a six-month deployment from Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 27 and surprised his family on the field during the 5th inning of the May 28 game. He is based at Robins AFB in Warner Robins.)
