Suggested Speech
For Memorial Day
2021
The American Legion National Headquarters
Media & Communications
P.O. Box 1055
Indianapolis, IN 46206
(317) 630-1298
[email protected] Thirty years ago, America engaged in a new war in a
volatile region. Iraq had invaded the sovereign nation of
Kuwait.
It was an act of aggression that could not stand. The
United States led a coalition of 35 nations with a bold and
clear mission to liberate an occupied country.
Among the half million U.S. troops deployed to the middle
east was Army Specialist Cindy Beaudoin (pronounced
bode win). A freshman at the University of Connecticut,
Specialist Beaudoin enlisted in the National Guard and
served as a medic with the 142nd Medical Company.
The Hartford Courant reported that the young specialist
had a chronic back condition that could have kept her
home during the deployment.
The daughter of a Vietnam veteran, Cindy would hear
none of it. “Of course, I’m going, silly. I couldn’t let my best
buddy go off alone,” she told a friend and fellow
servicemember.
On February 28, 1991, just hours after President George
H.W. Bush declared a cease-fire to end the Gulf War,
Specialist Cindy Beaudoin was killed in action after her
convoy struck a landmine. She was only 19.
Like many soldiers going to war, Specialist Beaudoin
wrote a letter to be delivered to her parents in the event
that she didn’t return.
“I did not come here to be a hero,” she wrote. “I came here
because my country needed me to be here. As much as I
hate being so far away from home, I am here with
thousands of other soldiers helping to bring down a very
deranged tyrant…If I should die while helping to achieve
this, then I did not die in vain…” unquote.
Cindy Beaudoin did NOT die in vain. Neither did any other
American who we honor on Memorial Day.
Nonetheless, wars are often unpopular. There is a good
reason for this.
It was Union General William T. Sherman who said, “It is
only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the
shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for
blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.” –
Unquote.
But we should always remember that the decisions
leading to war are those of policymakers- not the veterans
themselves. Sometimes the mission is clear-cut. In World
War II, millions were liberated and truly evil regimes were
toppled.
The price can still be unbelievably painful as Emma and
Willy Lebrecht (pronounced Lāy bresht) experienced. The
Jewish couple fled Nazi Germany for New York City with
their two young sons in 1938.
Seven years later, Ferdi and Alfred Lebrecht made the
Supreme Sacrifice for their new country while fighting the
Germans in Europe.
In his book, “Brothers In Arms,” author Kevin Callahan
noted, “the memory of those two brave brothers, who
escaped Nazi Germany, only to perish in its destruction,
lives on.”
And that’s why we are here today – to recall not just the
memories of Cindy Beaudoin and the Lebrecht brothers,
but to honor the sacrifices made by the one million heroes
who died while defending this country since the American
Revolution.
And that sacrifice is painfully shared by the Gold Star
families and close friends of these heroes. Most of us will
not truly understand the depths of their despair unless we
have experienced it.
But we can always offer our support. We can wear the
poppy. We can place flags and wreaths at their graves.
We can donate to charities that provide for their families.
And we can look at their surviving brothers and sisters-in-
arms and say, “Thank you for your service.”
Our organization – The American Legion – recognizes that
when rounds are coming your way, there is no such thing
as – quote- “a small war.”
More than 1,600 Americans have lost their lives fighting in
covert operations and cold war battles that occurred
between the designated war periods since the attack on
Pearl Harbor.
We honor their sacrifice as much as we honor those lost
on Iwo Jima or at the Frozen Chosin.
For one hundred years the Preamble of the Constitution of
The American Legion stated our commitment to “preserve
the memories and incidents of our associations in the
Great War,” and later the “Great Wars.” This wording was
a natural outcome for an organization that was founded by
World War I veterans and succeeded by equally
committed World War II veterans.
In 2019, we changed our Preamble and expanded our
publicly stated commitment. We now promise to “preserve
the memories and incidents of our associations in ALL
wars.”
We are here today to honor ALL of our fallen heroes.
Fallujah and the Philippines. Khe Sanh and Kandahar.
Beirut and Grenada. We honor American heroes from the
American Revolution through the Global War on
Terrorism, and every battle in-between. The location is
unimportant. It is the hearts of these men and women that
truly matters. It is the devotion within that led them to
sacrifice their lives for the country that we all love.
It is hard for us –the living – to equate ourselves with
those who made such a sacrifice. The surviving loved
ones do not have to look very far to find their heroes.
As Specialist Beaudoin (bode win) wrote to her parents,
“when you start to miss me, look inside your heart and you
will find me.”
We should all look in our hearts. We may not only find our
heroes, but we can examine what type of country that we
live in. No matter what critics can say about America, can
a nation that produces such remarkable men and women
be anything but a force for good?
Can we do more to create a country that is worthy of such
sacrifice? Can we insist that our policymakers always
consider the true cost of their decisions and only send
men and women to war when all other options have been
fully considered?
War is often not the best policy. But the heroes that wars
produce are the best of America.
Thank you for being here. God Bless you and God Bless
America!
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