09/21/2020
HERMANN VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK DEDICATION
Sunday, November 10 2 p.m.
Dedicatory Address Written & Presented by Lois Kruse
PFC KIA Anzio, Italy, WWII
Cpl USMC & Reserves 1952 – 1960
US Navy Vietnam 1964-67
1944-46 10th Mtn Div, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
USAF SSgt, Kosovo-Afghanistan-Iraq
Pvt, died in France Dec 1918 WWI
Army Air Force Korea 1952-1953
US Navy 1966-69 Guantanamo Bay
Combat Engineer Vietnam 1969-1974
KIA Iraq 2005
SSG Military Police MO National Guard
Lt US Coast Guard WWI & WWII
All gave some. Some gave all.
Today we gather here to dedicate this park as an outward symbol of the gratitude of many for, and in recognition and honor of, those who served or who are currently serving or who will serve in the future in the military branches of the United States of America. We gather as parents of those who served, as spouses or widows of those who served, as children of those who served, as siblings of those who served, as grandchildren of those who served, as friends of those who served, as persons whose hearts swell with gratitude for those who served to preserve the inalienable rights with which their Creator endowed them – the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Today is not about rank or title or station in life. Today all who we honor are on a level playing field. All have one thing in common. All gave of themselves for all of the rest of us.
More than 500 veterans currently are honored in the plaza here at the foot of the hill. More than 300 are honored on the monument up the hill from the plaza. How many thousands more have gone before us or are currently serving or still walk among us with their military service a daily part of their lives, their military service part of who they are?
This Hermann Veterans Memorial Park was conceived and stands today as a tribute to all who have served or who are currently serving or who will serve in the future. We here today and all Americans owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of our veterans – dead or alive, old or young, whether they served overseas or stateside, whether their war was popular or unpopular.
It has been said that a veteran is one who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America” for an amount up to and including his or her life. Whether still on active duty or discharged or retired or in the reserves or deceased, every veteran wrote that blank check, and it is to us, a grateful nation, never to forget. Throughout our history and still today our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have placed themselves in harm’s way to protect the freedoms of the American people.
As a nation, America is uniquely blessed, and with those blessings comes a duty, an obligation to lead. If this country does not lead the calls for democracy, prosperity and human rights around the world, who will? Those who we honor today and in the future with this park have responded to that call, whether they were drafted or they volunteered.
Of course, there are many of us who have never served. We cannot fully understand the sacrifices made by our military personnel both in times of peace and of war. We will never fully understand what those who have served were required to do. We will never fully understand the depth of the scars of many.
Today there are many who walk quietly among us, never speaking of their military service. There are many whose lives were changed in profound ways by their military service. There are so many families today who don’t have a veteran and don’t know the impact of a veteran’s service. It is the duty of our veterans and those of us who do have veterans in our families and who know the impact of our veteran’s service to talk about their story. If we together fulfill that duty, we will help to ensure that generations to come will continue to believe in the United States of America.
Like others of you here I have had the unforgettable privilege of visiting numerous American military cemeteries on foreign soil, each with its own design, layout and character. Each time I walked through the gates of another cemetery the experience was new. The impact and the emotion evoked remain virtually indescribable even today, nearly twenty years later. Seeing row upon row, literally thousands of white headstones, either Stars of David for those who professed the Jewish faith or Latin crosses for all others, was, for me at least, an unforgettable lesson in remembering. And it is that remembering to which this park is dedicated.
One of the veterans honored with a brick in the plaza here down the hill
was killed, along with three of his comrades, on August 4, 1944, now already seventy-five years ago, when their armored car was struck by enemy fire during an incident that resulted in the liberation of Ernee in France.
In 2007 more than six decades later, a young man in France wrote a poem as a means of honoring and remembering our local veteran and his comrades. Of course, he had those four specific American soldiers in mind when he wrote, but his message is actually far broader.
Hear his words.
“I have an American friend,
I do not know his name
He is unaware of mine,
But I have an American friend.
I am not familiar with him,
He does not know anything about me,
But he is my American friend.
What is the color of his eyes,
Of his hair,
Is he light-skinned or dark?
In which state was he born?
Of all that, I know nothing!
Is he southern or Yankee,
Californian, Cherokee?
But I hold to my American friend,
Because I have a debt I owe him.
I owe him springs and summers,
The women who I have loved,
The son, the daughter, the last little thing.
I owe him tens of years,
My past, my present and future
Because of my American friend.
The only thing I know of him
Is where to find him.
In great fields of crosses and stars
Along the coast of Normandy,
Fields where I go to pray and cry.
He rests there, my American friend.
In his sack, there was a gift for me.
Freedom.
I always have it,
Because I have an American friend.”
This poem that one man wrote applies, I believe, to all in the service of our country, to all of you veterans gathered here today, to all the veterans honored and to be honored in this park, to all who at some point wrote a blank check made payable to the United States of America for an amount up to and including his or her life.
It doesn’t matter whether we agree with battle strategies. It doesn’t matter if those in power during wartime or in times of so-called peace are of our own political persuasion. It doesn’t matter if we agree or disagree with decisions that have brought us to battle fronts around the world and within our own boundaries. It doesn’t matter what year war was declared or which war it was. It doesn’t matter whether those who have served or who are serving or who will serve were drafted or enlisted on their own, whether they were officers or those on the front lines.
What matters is that those who have served, who are serving and who will serve have done so and will do so believing in the United States of America.
So, today, we consecrate Hermann Veterans Memorial Park as a place of honor within this community. We here, today, dedicate Hermann Veterans Memorial Park to the brave men and women who have served in the military of the United States of America, who are currently serving, and who will serve in the future. May we today go forth from this place never to forget their service and may we instill in generations to come the meaning and purpose of this Park. May we never forget . . .
All gave some. Some gave all.
Thank you.
