Flags standing silent guard have a message for all of us

Flags standing silent guard have a message for all of us

The Greatest Generation, though dwindling in numbers, continues to speak to us this Memorial Day.

Our nation has been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan longer than the United States was involved in hostilities during World War II. But the percentage of Americans touched directly by this war remains relatively small. That makes it far too easy for Americans to take today’s service men and women for granted. It can be argued that the opposite should be true.

Scattered throughout the Mahoning Valley are cemeteries where, on this day, small American flags can be seen flying from nearly every grave. Those flags speak volumes about the degree to which the World War II generation stepped up to defend our nation. Every town, every neighborhood, every family had someone in the armed services. Hundreds of thousands lost that someone. More than 16 million returned from service and it is they, now dying at the rate of nearly 2,000 per day, who lie beneath most of the flags in our cemeteries.

Those flags remind us to honor those who served, and not, of course, just in World War II, but in Vietnam, Korea, World War I, back to the Revolutionary War and including dozens of police actions.

And those flags should doubly remind us to honor today those who have chosen to serve in our all-volunteer armed forces.

The sacrifices being made by families today — sacrifices that are made over and over again as soldiers are called to second and third tours of duty — are all the more extraordinary because they are being made by the few, for the benefit of the many.

It doesn’t end today

We should pause on this Memorial Day to honor all those who serve today, to remember parents and grandparents who served in the hope that future generations would be able to live in peace and to pay special respect to those who gave the last full measure of their devotion to country and countrymen.

But we should also resolve to provide whatever we can to the veterans of today’s war.

Our greatest moral obligation is to the tens of thousands who have been wounded — thousands of those bearing wounds that past generations of soldiers would not have survived. They are going to need care and support for years, some for decades.

Then there is the nation’s obligation to provide educational benefits to those soldiers who return. This is actually something of a selfish benefit because it not only improves the lives of veterans and their families, but it makes us a stronger nation. The GI Bill that sent millions of World War II veterans back to school helped make ours the most vibrant post-war economy in the world.

None of this can be done on the cheap, or done without some financial sacrifice by tens of millions of Americans who have been content to allow several hundred thousand volunteers fight for us.

Let us pause today to honor our veterans, living and dead. But in coming months, let us listen carefully to what presidential and congressional candidates tell us they are willing to do to repay our debt to the men and women of the armed forces. Let us ask ourselves what we are willing to sacrifice that even begins to approach the sacrifices they have made.