COLONEL MILLETT'S SPEECH
6 Feb 1998
Hill 180 Remembrance Day
"AMERICA, THE LAST FREE SOCIETY FOUNDED IN LIBERTY UNDER GOD, STILL EXISTS A THREAD OF HOPE IN THE FABRIC OF A WORLD REPLETE WITH TYRANNY TOWARDS MAN AND TREASON TOWARDS GOD. WE ARE STILL FREE BECAUSE MEN OF HONOR AND COURAGE DEEPLY BELIEVED THAT THE DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS A NOBLE CAUSE.
Shortly after the liberation of Rome in 1944, I had the opportunity to visit
the Sistine Chapel and observe Michelangelo's portrayal of our Creator reaching
out to touch the fashioned clay that would be mankind. When our Creator breathed
the fire of life into the dust that was to be man, He imbued in man's soul a
spark of Freedom. Tyrants, since the dawn of creation have attempted to destroy
man's desire to worship his Creator and to stifle and smother that spark of
Freedom.
In the coliseum of Rome, on the steppes of Russia, in the concentration camps of
Europe, in the rice paddies of China, on the jungle floor of Vietnam and
Cambodia, in the mountains of Laos and Afghanistan, on the desert of Arabia, in
the land once called Yugoslavia lie the bodies and bones, the dust of countless
millions who are martyrs to the cause of Freedom.
In 1856 a poet stood in a square in Budapest, Hungary, and shouted to a
multitude fighting against the tyranny of Russia, "Shall we free men be, or
slave? Choose the lot your spirit craves!" Thousands of young Americans who
never heard these words have volunteered to fight against the cause of tyranny
because they believed in Freedom.
It has been my privilege to fight in Africa, Europe and Asia, to serve in many
foreign lands and to meet the people, Kings and Commoner, Presidents and
peasants of those countries. I have helped to temper the iron of a blacksmith in
Greece, to teach the children in Japan, to pull the nets of the fisherman from
out the China Sea. I have dug the grub-hoe into the side of a hill in Vietnam
and helped the mountain people plant their highland rice, I have delivered
sustenance and toys to orphanages in the War zone and watched the children’s'
smiles illuminate the day.
Among all the ideas and customs, the hopes and desires of people whom I
encountered, whether they be soldier or strangers, king or peasant, rich or
poor, they all had but one desire --to be left alone in peace, to be free. But
the price of Freedom comes high. The sacrifices that purchased our liberty
cannot be commemorated with a few words, or even one book, or with a one day
observance, or a brief speech.
Today many make heroes of those who achieve fame and fortune as troubadours of
song or who portray, as actors on stage and screen, the hero we would want to
be. The real heroes remain unsung, lost and buried, some in foreign lands. They
achieved in their young lives far more than the tinsel fame of the movie hero
and never received the screaming adulation from the immature who worship at the
shrine of the Jungle rock and roll. They did not receive the roaring acclamation
of the masses in our sports coliseums. They lived, often in misery, in
stupefying heat, in bone-freezing cold. They died tough. Some died with sweat,
some with blood, some with tears in their eyes. They sacrificed themselves for
our freedom in strange places called Kasserine, Sbeitla, Gafsa, Salerno, Anzio,
Cassino, Rotundo, Mount Lungo, Guadacanal, Luzon, Okinawa, Masan, Taegu, Sinanju,
Chosin, Khe San, Dat To, Khontum, Pleiku--battles that bring to mind Valley
Forge, Gettysburg, Chateau Thierry, the Argonne, places where my forefathers,
your antecedents fought and bled.
When our Creator reached out and gave mankind life, he also provided our soul
with a spark of freedom which is the pathway to the liberties we enjoy. Our
comrades-in-arms, who served so nobly and sacrificed so dearly were the shield
and armor for all of us who enjoy the privilege, the liberty, the bounties of
this nation. They accepted a challenge, we must accept a similar demand. They
had a duty, a responsibility, a cause to serve embodied in the Declaration of
Independence, in the Constitution of the United States and in the free society
in which we live. They served these Institutions and the United States of
America, and you and I with courage, devotion, duty, loyalty, sacrifice and
honor. We who received the benefits of that sacrifice, that duty, that loyalty
also have a responsibility and duty to serve that spark of freedom given to us
by God. It is the essence of the Judaeo-Christian faith that mankind received
liberty from his Creator, that man is free to choose, that man has a God-given
right to liberty. We live in a country that at its birth was created with this
premise, "All men are created equal, all men are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, and liberty."
To our comrades who died in service to their country a fitting memorial to them
would be these words carved in gold:
"TELL THE NATION THAT WE LIE HERE OBEDIENT TO THEIR LAWS AID THE NOBLE CAUSE
OF LIBERTY." MAY GOD GIVE US THE WISDOM, THE INTEGRITY, THE COURAGE TO SERVE THE
CAUSE OF FREEDOM. FOR WE UNDERSTAND THAT HE WHO FAILS TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, OR
SERVE THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY WILL DIE A COWARD OR LIVE AS A SLAVE. MAY OUR CREATOR
FOREVER KEEP THIS THE LAND OF LIBERTY.
The American Soldier - the Soldier
of Liberty
(with acknowledgments to Father David Desmond O'Brien former Sergeant USMC)
It is the Soldier not the reporter that gives us Freedom of the Press
It is the Soldier not the poet who brings us Freedom of Speech.
It is the Soldier not the campus agitator that gives us the Freedom to
demonstrate.
It is the Soldier who salutes the Flag, who fights beneath that Flag whose
coffin is draped by that Flag who gives the protector the opportunity to burn
that Flag. (Father O'Brien)
It is the Soldier who fights and dies, not the politician that gives us the
Freedom that we enjoy.
It was Soldiers Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, Truman, Reagan, Bush who tried as
elected officials to continue the service of Duty,
Honor, Country in their civil service to Liberty." (Col Millett)
