Memorial Day

General Douglas MacArthur’s farewell speech given to the cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point May 12, 1962 was recently brought to my attention.

He spoke to duty, honor and country. According to him, “…unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.”

And, they have, continuing to do so.

MacArthur continued: “The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training - sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him. However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country, is the noblest development of mankind.”

Christ confirmed this: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 KJV)

MacArthur’s words are as valid today as in 1962: “Civilian voices may argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government. Whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as firm and complete as they should be.

“These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.”

Our soldiers have understood, as “…civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government…”, Plato’s philosophizing “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” Similarly, And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6 KJV)

We offer our soldiers medals for their valor, honor for their courage. Let us always offer them our respect, our thanks and our love, for their sacrifice.

This year, as decades past, we will specifically remember the sacrifice given by Captain John Clarence Blickensderfer, a 20-year-old US Army Air Corps pilot who did not return from a bombing run, shot down over Hoorn, Holland. His parents faced the blankness of no one to carry their family, and they adopted two brothers. For that we are so very grateful and acknowledge their loss, too.

Please pray for the families who today remain. And for the men and women who continue to stand in harm’s way.