Friends, Members, and all Veterans,
On the KWVA home page you can read President Bush’s Prayer for Peace, Memorial
Day, 2007 A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America. In most places
and in many ways this has been a “long weekend,’ hopefully topped off on Monday, May 28, in Remembrance
of all the fallen from all of our wars. In IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, the PERSIAN GULF, KOREA, the seaways of
the world, the SINAI, the HORN OF AFRICA, and at US military bases in JAPAN, EUROPE and the UNITED STATES
servicemen and women will be engaged in eternal vigilance and struggle against the powers of darkness
which seek to dominate our world and enslave populations: FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.
On May 20th, I attended the White House Commission on Remembrances’ Time of Remembrance on the
Washington Monument grounds in the Capitol. The celebration was setup a few hundred yards from the Korean
War Veterans Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Wall. In fact, the site was exactly where many of us fought
off the deep cold of last March 17th—The Gathering of Eagles.
Several thousand assembled there May 20th, including many parents and loved ones of the dead, missing,
or wounded from AFGHANISTAN and IRAQ—all of them had been invited. We presented Gold Medal of Remembrance
medallions to several hundred of the children whose fathers (in a few cases mothers) had been killed. The
photo below is of the stage after individuals in the battle dress of each of our wars paraded to the stage.
Martha Raddatz, White House Correspondent, ABC, was again one of the featured speakers—she is at the
rostrum, in the green dress, in the photo. Martha concluded her portion of the program saying let
us never forget all of them, from all of our wars, from before the beginning of our Republic until now—all
of them combined to bring us to this place, at this time, in our Nation’s history.
The pageant was spectacular. But, in the ceremony all afternoon there was something much more important
presented. In the picture above you can see the names of the KIA, since 2001, streaming across the back
of the stage continuously, perhaps 5’ high letters.
I requested Director Jeff Brodeur to attend with me. His son Vincent, a high school graduate just two
years ago, will be in the hospital at least two more years trying to learn to walk and talk all over again,
and trying to regain the use of the right side of his body—a fighting paratrooper, if for only a brief time
in history (Company B, 505PIR, 82d Airborne Division), forever changed. . .
let us never forget all of them, from all of our wars, from before the beginning of our Republic until
now—all of them combined to bring us to this place, at this time, in our Nation’s history.
Private Vincent Mannion shown with his mother, Maura (Mrs. Jeff) Brodeur in the University
of Massachusetts research and treatment center, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston.
Sometimes it seems to me that I have spent a lot of time in DC, and a lot of hospital time--Walter Reed
and Bethesda just a few miles from where the Time of Remembrance was held. On May 20th near the celebration
other crowds lay around in the sun, had Frisbee contests, bought water and ice cream and trinkets about
the Monument (made by what we used to call slave labor, in China for the most part), oblivious to all but
their personal “pursuits of happiness.” All the while the names streamed across the scene, several
feet tall. And after all the VIP left, and after all the survivors and children with gold medallions left,
and after General Casey and all the other Joint Chiefs left (they had presented the gold medallions, a tough
job), after Secretary Nicholson had departed, after the remaining troops from the Old Guard and Military
District of Washington—the enactors—had finished taking down the ready line tents, after the US Army Band
and Chorus had packed up, after the last reporter had done their last eager interview of the survivors,
especially of the children, and as Jeff and I were departing, a look behind us. . . . and the names were
still scrolling almost like a watching yet not speaking jury to see if we--all of the living Americans--would
measure up.
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Lest we forget… let us never forget all of them, from all of our wars,
from before the beginning of our Republic until now—all of them combined to bring us to this place, at this
time, in our Nation’s history.
National President, KWVA/US
Chairman of the Board