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Senator Byrd

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May 26, 2006

Honoring Our Fallen Heroes

As the nation prepared to mark the Memorial Day holiday, Senator Byrd offered some reflections on America's fallen heroes.

On the last Monday in May, the nation honors the men and women who have given their lives in battle. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the practice of decorating the graves of those who died in battle was already an established custom in many places, but it was a tribute to the healing of the nation that both sides were able to put aside their past differences to mourn the fallen together after that terrible conflict. Though many communities lay claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day, since World War I, when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring those lost in battle in any war, Memorial Day belongs to us all.

Death knows no divisions or political views; it knows no distinctions between uniforms or battlegrounds. The nation knew that all too well after the Civil War. Death unites the fallen in God’s care, and it heaps grief and loss in equal measure on all those left to mourn. It is a lesson that some strident few today need to be reminded of, as they use military burials as a place of protest. No matter what views one holds about the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, or indeed of any conflicts anywhere, there is no place for such intrusions during these solemn rites, no cause worth offering further pain to the families of the fallen. The men and women in our military who don the uniform of the United States are not, as the President so inelegantly put it, “the deciders.” They must, instead, put aside their personal views and focus instead on working seamlessly with the other members of their unit, so that the unit survives. Every death is accompanied by stories of heroism, from the one who sacrificed his all to keep his fellow soldiers safe to the heroes who brought the fallen home. No protests can change, and none should mar, those acts of bravery or those honored dead.

Memorial Day is a day to put aside our own schedules and to-do lists and to spend some time remembering those who have risked all and lost all in service to the nation. It is a day to recall their bravery, their duty, their strength, and their humanity. It is a day of tribute to them, and to their families, to whom the nation owes so much. The poet Joyce Kilmer, himself a sergeant with the “Fighting 69th” Division who lost his own life in 1918 during World War I, wrote a poem called “Memorial Day”:

“Dulce et decorum est”

The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,
But not of war it sings to-day.
The road is rhythmic with the feet
Of men-at-arms who come to pray.

The roses blossom white and red
On tombs where weary soldiers lie;
Flags wave above the honored dead
And martial music cleaves the sky.

Above their wreath-strewn graves we kneel,
They kept the faith and fought the fight.
Through flying lead and crimson steel
They plunged for Freedom and the Right.

May we, their grateful children, learn
Their strength, who lie beneath this sod,
Who went through fire and death to earn
At last the accolade of God.

In shining rank on rank arrayed
They march, the legions of the Lord;
He is their Captain unafraid,
The Prince of Peace…Who brought a sword.

All too often these days, Memorial Day is just another three-day weekend, an opportunity to work on the yard, go shopping, or host a backyard barbeque. Though many profess to “support the troops,” fewer and fewer Americans honor the men and women in uniform, and their fallen compatriots, by flying the flag by their front door. Fewer still visit military cemeteries or actually decorate graves in the old fashion. But if you went to Arlington National Cemetery yesterday, Thursday, May 25th, you may have witnessed a beautiful scene known as “Flags-In”. Just prior to each Memorial Day weekend, every available soldier from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Division, the “Old Guard,” honors their fallen brethren by placing a small American flag before each of the more than 220,000 gravestones and 7,300 niches at the cemetery’s columbarium. An additional 13,500 flags are set in place at the Soldier’s and Airman’s Home National Cemetery, also in Washington, D.C. Flags are placed at the graves of each of the four individuals at the Tomb of the Unknowns by the Tomb Sentinels. Then, in order to ensure that each flag remains in place and standing proudly, the Old Guard patrols the cemetery throughout the weekend, watching over their fallen comrades. It is a stirring sight to see that truly, none of these great sacrifices are forgotten, and to witness how seriously these young soldiers take their duty.

On Memorial Day, there will be speeches and wreaths will be laid. A moment of silence will be observed. For these few moments, our nation both mourns and celebrates. Privately, we mourn the loss of so many young men and women, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, friends and relatives. Our hearts and our prayers go out to all the families who have lost a loved one in the nation’s service, and especially to those families who have borne their tragedy so recently and whose tears are still so close to the surface. Our thoughts and prayers are also with those whose family members have been wounded and who fight now for their lives.

As a nation, we celebrate and honor the patriotism and heroism that have kept us free, kept us united, and kept us strong for the past 230 years. It is on the shoulders of these brave legions of the fallen, and their comrades in uniform past and present, that our nation is carried to greatness.

Technological and scientific progress is a source of pride and strength, economic prosperity a boon, and our Constitution a blessing, but none of these gifts is sustainable without the will and resolve to defend them, to the death if necessary. Those we honor on Memorial Day have gone that extra mile. They have worn the uniform with pride and they have won and kept our freedom with their effort and their sacrifice. They have fought around the globe, in the dark and the mud and the dust, on holidays, anniversaries and weekends. Some missed the births of their children; all missed growing old with their loved ones. They will enjoy no more three day weekends, no family vacations, no backyard barbeques. In our moment of silence, as the flags snap in front of the rows upon rows of marble markers, think on all that they have given up for us, and be humbled.

Edgar Guest, a prolific poet of the first half of the last century, wrote many favorite poems of mine. His work was published in the newspapers, for he worked for the Detroit Free Press. His poem, Memorial Day, suggests a fitting tribute to all those we honor on Memorial Day:

Memorial Day

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead today,
Is not a rose wreath, white and red,
In memory of the blood they shed;
It is to stand beside each mound,
Each couch of consecrated ground,
And pledge ourselves as warriors true
Unto the work they died to do.

Into God’s valleys where they lie
At rest, beneath the open sky,
Triumphant now o’er every foe,
As living tributes let us go.
No wreath of rose or immortelles
Or spoken word or tolling bells
Will do to-day, unless we give
Our pledge that liberty shall live.

Our hearts must be the roses red
We place above our hero dead;
Today beside their graves we must
Renew allegiance to their trust;
Must bare our heads and humbly say
We hold the Flag as dear as they,
And stand, as once they stood, to die
To keep the Stars and Stripes on high.

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead today
Is not of speech or roses red,
But living, throbbing hearts instead,
That shall renew the pledge they sealed
With death upon the battlefield:
That freedom’s flag shall bear no stain
And free men wear no tyrant’s chain.