Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day honors the men and women who have died while serving our country as members of the U. S. military. First celebrated in 1868, when 5,000 people came to Arlington National Cemetery to join then-General James Garfield in decorating the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there, it has evolved from honoring Civil War dead to honoring all those killed in service.
Even before our country existed, people have been willing to lay down their lives in defense of the ideals upon which America was founded: freedom, justice, & opportunity.
Over the past 250 years, well over one million men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice, both here at home and on foreign fields. Today, they lie in countless cemeteries across the U.S. and in many American cemeteries in other nations. Some are represented by names engraved on a wall. Others rest under ocean waves or headstones bearing their names. For still others, their marker simply reads “Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known But to God.”
These soldiers and our freedom reflect the reasons why we get to stand, kneel, salute and bow. Their sacrifices, as well as those of their comrades-in-arms, secured the unique freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Their blood, as Thomas Jefferson said, watered the tree of liberty.
So, for those of you who visited a cemetery, viewed old photos, or shed a tear for a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice, we appreciate you and honor your loved one(s). We will never be able to show adequate appreciation to these heroes who fought and died for all of the freedoms we enjoy each day. Thank you for our land of the free and our home of the brave.