On Monday May 30, The American Armenian National Security Institute – AANSI Chairman, U.S. Army Major Gen. (Ret.) Mark MacCarley was featured as the Keynote Speaker during the Memorial Day Celebration. The event was by the Glendale Sunrise Rotary Club at Forest Lawn Glendale. The ceremony also featured the Field of Honor, which has 1,000 American flags lined up in rows to honor military personnel, first responders and other heroes sponsored by the event’s donors. Below is the speech by Mr. MacCarley.
MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION – FOREST LAWN
30 MAY 2022
Distinguished Leaders of our Community – Mayor, City Council members, fellow Veterans, and Family and Friends of Veterans. And especially our Gold Star Families, those who have lost loved ones who served during time of war, good morning. To stand here and view these thousand nineteen flags waving in the wind (under a bright sun) is truly an ennobling experience and speaks to the extraordinary commitment of the members of the Glendale Sunrise Rotary to honor our Veterans.
In the defense of this country – and the principles for which it stands – Americans from all walks of life have answered the Nation’s call to arms since the Revolution, from the War of 1812, from the Civil War, from the Spanish American War, to World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and this present conflict and some have, as a consequence of their valiant service, paid the ultimate price.
What we now celebrate as Memorial Day originated after the American Civil War in 1865 as Decoration Day to commemorate the almost 450,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who died in that terrible conflict. Memories of that war were still raw, some would say that the memories of the Civil War, the reasons for which it was fought and the consequences to this Nation, still haunt us culturally and politically today. Almost every family suffered a loss of a loved one in the Civil War – to include the newly emancipated people of color, many of whom had fought and died in that conflict or were barbarously murdered because they chose to challenge the existing order of things.
Decoration Day took on the character of an extended family reunion to which folks traveled hundreds of miles to these cemeteries to remember their loved ones who had fallen in combat. Whole communities – not just the “X’ people here at Forest Lawn – gathered on the designated day, put flowers on the graves of their loved ones, and renewed contacts with kinfolk and others. There was often a religious service and “dinner on the ground,” the traditional term for a picnic.
By the 20th century Decoration Day had been renamed Memorial Day to honor all Americans who have died while in military service. It was formally declared a National Holiday in 1967.
Memorial Day serves as a reminder to us all that freedom is not free. It comes with the highest of costs.
[Ulvade and Buffalo] One of the privileges and the solemn obligation of general officers in the Army, Marines, and Air Force and Admirals in the Navy and Coast Guard is to officiate at all military funerals of Americans in uniform who died in service to our country. And I have done so. As the ceremony draws to a close and the prayers and eulogies are complete, the American flag is withdrawn from the casket and carefully folded by the military funeral detachment. The Honor Sergeant then hands that flag to the general officer. I step toward the widow or widower, the grieving parents, and often orphaned children, and say: “On behalf of the President of the United States, (the United States Army…), and a grateful Nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one’s honorable and faithful service.’
The emotion is overwhelming. I so much want to say, that this will be our last war, that America will never send another young man or woman into harm’s way, that your spouse/your son or daughter did not die in vain, that the world will resolve all future conflicts responsibly, without bloodshed, so that no family will have to lose a loved one, every again.” AND I KNOW THAT SAY SO WOULD BE A LIE.
Because there will always be evil, prejudice, hatred, intolerance, deprivation, and despotism in this world, this United States will continue to ask its children to make extraordinary sacrifices – sometimes the ultimate sacrifice – just like those we honor today who have given their lives in battlefields on the ground, on the sea, and in the air, far away from home and family, around the world.
Photo Credit: All Photos by Onig Ghiulezian/Eurovideo
Today the ranks of those willing to go into harms’ way for their community and their country is infinitesimally smaller. That phrase is meant by me to be “inclusive – not exclusive.” I mean all those who put service to their community front and center in their lives. There are many, today, whose idea of public service and sacrifice is to make more money and spend it just as quickly. They neither appreciate nor understand that their good fortune, derived from the economic opportunity afforded to them in this United States, or from the financial benefits and services made available to them by a caring society, and the political and religious freedoms they enjoy come with a reciprocal obligation of service to this Nation and to their communities where they reside – whether as members of our Armed Forces, or as public servants – police, fire, or teachers, or as committed members of their communities, like members of the Sunrise Rotary, Glendale Kiwanis, etc. To put it simply, we each owe a debt to this Nation and that debt must be paid, each in his or her own way.
About three months ago, when the Russians invaded Ukraine, a nationally respected (Quinnipiac) poll asked Americans if they would stand and fight if the US were invaded. Some 7 per cent answered, “Don’t know”, 55 per cent said they might stay and fight, while 38 per cent would flee. One wonders. What does it mean to be a citizen or resident, then?
In front of me I see thousands of flags, each of which represents sacrifice made by Veterans of our Armed Services. But we really should have 200,000 flags representing the entire population of Glendale to include the almost 400, remembered here today, who made the ultimate sacrifice. I should have a flag that commemorates what I have done for my community and my country and each of you should have your own flag.
Acknowledgment of our debt of service to our Nation and our obligation to repay that debt through community service is, front and center, what I believe to be one of the most important step to overcome the corrosive divisiveness that besets this country and to subdue the ideologies of the right or left that make any semblance of community and cooperation nearly impossible. One way to do this is to start with our young people. And a most effective way to overcome palpable racial hatred, and to forestall anymore horrific killings perpetrated by Racists and kids not even old enough to drink, is implement national mandatory service – a period of a few months to a year where all young people, rich, poor, black, white, regardless of sexual orientation, and the disabled to the extent of their abilities must sacrifice a little bit of their time for their country. Not everyone has to join the Marines or Army (wouldn’t be a bad idea) for that matter and die for their country – service in the armed services being only one option, but national service would include community and environmental clean-up to insure the survival of the human species, COVID clinics, public libraries, student teaching, busting trail and hacking out fire breaks in the San Gabriel Mountains, or working as police or fire cadets, building homes for the homeless – a sort of Civilian Conservation Corps, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps/Vista Programs, all rolled up in once cohesive national effort.
We can try to educate ourselves out of all of these messes – the racial divide and the unmitigated killings or decide, as a knee jerk reaction, to give everyone a coupon for free mental health services, but at the end of the day, what will make this country again a nation, is throwing all these young people together in cauldron like boot camp, where race, culture and politics don’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I take care of the person to right and left of me, I respect my team members, and that I don’t screw-up when my brother or sister of whatever diverse background in these community service activities is depending upon me. These are certainly the qualities which we honor today, and which are represented by the flags in front of us.
To say it plainly in a few words, ” To whom much is given, much is expected” (Luke 12:48) or another variation of it made famous by a youthful President 60 years ago, ” Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” If you need the bibliographic references for these quotes, I can give them to you. This is what I am speaking of.
Nothing speaks higher to the memory of both our fallen Veterans and all Americans who have committed or will commit to community and public service are these words inscribed at the Arlington National Cemetery: “Not for Fame or reward, not for place or rank, not lured by ambition or goaded by necessity, but in simple obedience to duty as they understood it, these men and women suffered all, sacrificed all, dared all, and (some) died for the good of their Nation.
We should begin a discussion of the National Service Initiative today. Next year we want to see 200,000 flags at Forest Lawn. Our Veterans – those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice have shown us the way forward.