By Tom Wilbur
I don’t know what it means to serve in the military. Growing into early manhood in the late 60’s and early 70’s, the culture among my peers was that the Vietnam War was not in the interests of the United States of America, and there was a lot of resistance and various efforts to get it stopped, and for us to get out of there.
President Nixon ended the lottery for service in the armed forces, the year I was to have my name in the hat. They drew for the lottery by birth date. And my number, in the year that counted, was 5. That meant, the following year, they were to start calling young men with a birthday corresponding to number 1, and go to 365. Based upon my number, I would have been selected to report for duty somewhere, or enlist, in the military. For whatever reason, it just never happened. Today, I think about the sacrifices those young men and women (who were my peers) made in service in Vietnam and am so grateful to those who served. I lost a number of friends in that war.
There’s a growing sentiment among many today that we need to get our young men and women out of an “unwinnable presence” in Afghanistan, and that region of the world. I’d like to see us bring our soldiers home, because I detest the ravages of war—and the loss of life to our nation’s young men and women. But it’s not my decision, and I’m compelled to support my country and its leadership with prayers that there might be ongoing clarity and wisdom in their decision making. And that we can soon bring our troops home safely—as soon as possible.
So here we are—Memorial Day Weekend. Memorial Day was originally a day set aside to honor the dead from the Union and Confederacy in the Civil War, and was called “Decoration Day”. As we know, it has morphed into a remembrance for all veteran’s who have given their lives for others, and more generally, a remembrance for family members who have passed before us. For still others—it’s just another three day holiday.
In the bustle of the day, we often find wisdom in returning to the words of great leaders who have come before. Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” gives us a few ideas as to his thoughts on war and remembrance, in a time of conflict:
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
By Lincoln’s words we are given this phrase, “it is for us, the living, to be dedicated…to the unfinished work… so nobly advanced.” As a nation, we need to stay resolute in our vow to protect ourselves and further the prospects of freedom wherever we can, and remain “dedicated to the great task remaining before us … that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
This weekend, it is incumbent upon us all to honor the veterans of the United States of America, and our fallen brothers and sisters from every war— brave Americans who gave their lives for the incredible freedoms we enjoy.
Thank you to those who have served this nation of ours with distinction and honor. Thank you to each of you who are actively serving now wherever you are—in some far-away place, or here at home. You are in our prayers, and we as Americans, we salute you—and wish you God-speed.
May God continue to bless this nation, its leadership, and our military direction in preserving the vast freedoms we enjoy through the combined efforts of all of our valiant veterans, living and dead—freedoms that have been fought to bestow upon each of us.
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Tom Wilbur is President/CEO of BANK VI in Salina, Kansas—and was born on an Air Force base near San Marcos, Texas. He is a regular contributing editor to The Salina Post, and a graduate of the University of Kansas. This weekend, he honors his father, Lt. Roy Wilbur, a flight instructor in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. (I love you, Dad.) You can reach Tom at [email protected]