Since we declared our independence in 1776, Americans have shed blood in the defense of their country.  According to this, 1,321,612 people have died in our military, and an additional 1,531,036 have been wounded.  In addition, 38,159 have gone missing and have not been returned to their families.   Our most costly war was the Civil War, followed by the World Wars.  In my lifetime, over 10,000 men and women have given their lives to safeguard our country and the freedoms we all cherish.

It sounds like a lot, and it is.  The lives of our young men and women are precious to us all, and while we must recognize that the price of peace and freedom is not only vigilance, we must also that sometimes the bill is paid in blood.  The thing that we must all demand from those we appoint to leadership is that they be judicious in how they utilize our military, that they be respectful of the lives they are dealing with, and that they honor those that are lost.  Our youth are too important to us to waste them on wars of opportunity or choice, and we all fail when we do not force our servants to justify sending them into harm’s way.

To all of my brothers and sisters who have paid the ultimate price so that my children can sleep safe at night, thank you.  I will miss you until I join you, and my children and their children will know you and honor you.  No matter what else we forget, you will not be forgotten.