Washington D.C. -  Several months ago, a veteran of the U.S. Navy contacted my Cape Girardeau office to ask an out-of-the-ordinary question.  He said his father had served in WW II, and “thinks he might have won a medal.”  My staff went to work researching the request, and they soon found that Buddy Haas had not won a medal in WW II.
 He had won eleven.

For over 50 years, Buddy’s medals had been held by the Department of Defense for him:  The Purple Heart, the Bronze Star Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and Bronze Star, the Attachment and Arrowhead, the WWII Victory Medal, the Combat Infantry Badge, the First Award, and the Honorable Service Lapel Button, WWII.

Weeks later I went to Salem, Missouri.  I knelt in Buddy’s dining room and pinned medal after medal to his shirt.  His chest swelled with pride as I read off the name of each award. 

Buddy never would have called me himself to ask about his medals.  To him, the pride he felt in having served his nation honorably was all the thanks he needed.  His bravery demanded no other reward.  But his humility makes him even more deserving of the medals, gratitude, and undying appreciation he earned during a time of unprecedented conflict. 

Standing in the room with Buddy, my respect for his service appreciated greatly.  Buddy’s wife, Wave, was there, too, as proud as anyone could be of her husband.  Here was a man who, through great pain and sacrifice, had earned the acknowledgment of his government.  For 50 years, he never got his due, and during that entire span he did not complain.

The third person at the small awards ceremony we held in Buddy’s dining room: his best friend growing up and Salem resident Charlie Hayes.  When Buddy was wounded during his service, it was Charlie who was called up to take his place in the Army’s 77th Division.

The lesson can be applied to every other aspect of our lives – that we will stand up for our families, our communities, and our country when our neighbor cannot.  And when we can no longer carry this obligation, our neighbor will.

This is the spirit in which our veterans served:  Volunteering their very lives in service to our neighbors and fighting for the freedoms other Americans will enjoy.  Nationwide, millions of veterans from both wartime and peacetime have similar stories to tell – not stories of their own valor, but stories about why they joined and how they served. 

For the rest of us, America is our home and destiny, too.  But it is ours because of them.
 I’m very thankful for the opportunity to repay that debt in Buddy’s dining room, on behalf of every citizen in our congressional district and in a grateful nation.  But it made me very aware that we owe Buddy and other veterans so much more on Veterans Day. 

Few veterans will brag about their service.  None will demand Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts for simply doing their duty, but they all wear invisible medals of honor and valor.  The veterans who served our nation in wartime and peacetime gave themselves to the greater causes of freedom, liberty, and the American Spirit.  We can repay that debt by volunteering in our communities, participating in our government, being good citizens, and by continuing to build the America they held dearly in their hearts as they went to battle.

We can do it in the same way they served: friends, neighbors, countrymen standing shoulder to shoulder.  Our communities and our nation reflect our pride and our hard work.  Our devotion to our homes is something so sacred, we work tirelessly to enhance our freedoms for one another and to extend them to those less fortunate around the world.

Thank you for your bravery, Buddy and Charlie.  But, most of all, thank you for showing us what serving our country is all about.