This year has been a meaningful one for me.  Participation in the dedication of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., attendance at the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, and witnessing the ceremonies surrounding the death of President Reagan.  And now, we gather here to dedicate this special memorial.  Barber County joins the ranks of sacred places that remember our nation’s veterans.

        Veterans are the people I hold in the highest regard.  Our country is fortunate to have an abundance of men and women who are willing to answer the call of duty and accomplish great things for the benefit of their fellow man.  Even now, a new generation is fighting for the cause of freedom. 

        It’s Veterans’ Day.  On this day we should all ask ourselves, “Are our reasons for living as good as theirs were for dying?”  Eisenhower once said, “History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”  Americans enjoy the freedoms they do today because of our men and women in uniform, and our veterans, were neither “weak” nor “timid.”

        Some of you may have been in Washington, D.C. for the dedication of the World War II memorial.  I was honored to host nearly three hundred Kansas veterans and their families on Memorial Day weekend just prior to the dedication ceremony.  I am sorry it took our nation so long to get this memorial in place.  It is a beautiful tribute to World War II veterans who did so much to protect our country and bring freedom to people around the world.  The memorial is in an appropriate location—between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial—and I hope each of you will be able to visit it.

        I walked to the memorial just a few days before the official dedication.  It was inspiring.  I happened to have my cell phone with me, and I made a call to my eighty-nine year old father back in Plainville, Kansas.  He is a World War II veteran of Northern Africa, Sicily and Italy.  Fortunately, I got his answering machine, because it is often difficult for sons to tell their fathers the things we should tell them.  My message on the answering machine was,  “Dad, I love you, Dad, I am proud of you, and Dad, thank you for your service to our country.”  I told my Dad what I should have said a long time ago and what we all should have said long ago to our veterans. I hope this is the reaction that the World War II Memorial causes for every American who visits our nation’s capital.

        A few weeks after the dedication of the WWII Memorial, I participated in the ceremony at Normandy, France, honoring the 60th anniversary of D-Day.  I stood on the sands of the Normandy beaches, saw the waves lapping at the shore, the cliffs ahead.  I tried to imagine what it must have been like for those young men, so many years ago, to disembark from their ships and charge out across the sand.  Many of us today think about veterans as people who are older.  But we forget that the men and women who have served our country were still in their youth – 18, 19, 20-year-olds.  And many of those young people gave up their chance to grow old, and instead made the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of freedom.  And so, we come to places like Normandy, France, and Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and remember them. Twenty years ago, in his address to those gathered on the 40^th anniversary of D-Day, President Reagan said, “We will always remember.  We will always be proud.  We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.”

        Whether we stand on the Normandy beaches, or here, in the Gyp Hills, we can stand in reverence, and thank God for the bravery of these men and women.  God’s greatest gift, is the gift of life.  We thank God for those men and women who sacrificed that gift safeguarding the rights of others – their families, neighbors and for folks they never knew. 

A few days after the D-Day anniversary, I walked through the Capitol Rotunda to pay my final respects to President Ronald Reagan.  As I stood there, my gaze fixed upon the flag draped over his casket, I thought about Reagan’s love for America.  He, like many of you, was a member of that Greatest Generation.  He shared that generation’s sentiments, its love of America and its understanding of the need to serve. 

        I think things were different when Ronald Reagan was president – I think in many ways they were better.  Ronald Reagan had strongly held convictions and many of the debates in his day were of beliefs, philosophies and values.  Today, unfortunately, rather than a battle of ideas, Washington, D.C. is much more about political games and personalities. It is about Republican this and Democrat that.  When you all answered your country’s call to service you were not Republican soldiers or Democrat airmen.  You were Americans.  Putting the country and its people above party politics – that is what we deserve from our elected officials.  We need to return to the days when what was good for the country is what mattered.

        Our servicemen and women never sacrificed for trivial political games but for freedom, opportunity and for the chance to make the lives of their children and grandchildren better.

        When I need a reminder of what really is important and need to refocus on the priorities of our nation and its people, all I need to do is take a walk down The National Mall.  That walk will take me past the Vietnam Wall and the Korean War Memorial and now the World War II Memorial.  All the things that the politician thinks are important disappear. 

        And just like that walk past the memorials, being here with you reinforces what is important.  This room is filled with proud men and women, who believed in freedom then, and still do today.  As long as you remain role models for the rest of us, there can be no doubt that America will always be free.

        I thank all of you, those who are members of the greatest generation, and all who have followed-- Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, the Persian Gulf - I thank you for serving your country.  Thank you for your dedication and your love of our nation.

        Each of you, each of our veterans, has changed the world with your convictions, beliefs and service.

        President Reagan’s funeral at the National Cathedral closed with a hymn entitled, “Mansions of the Lord.”  I would like to share it with you:

            To fallen soldiers let us sing

            Where no rockets fly nor bullets wing

            Our broken brothers let us bring

            To the mansions of the Lord

            No more bleeding, no more fight

            No prayers pleading through the night

            Just divine embrace, eternal light

            In the mansions of the Lord

            Where no mothers cry and no children weep

            We will stand and guard though the angels sleep

            Through the ages safely keep

            The mansions of the Lord

        As we gather here today to dedicate this memorial, may God bless you veterans and the country you love.

             May we always remember.

             May we always be proud.