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Ceremony honors veterans’ sacrifices for others’ choices
Sacrifice.
It’s a word often used on Veterans Day, but sacrifice in the name of what?
In her speech at the annual Veterans Day ceremony at the Putnam County Courthouse on Saturday, Master Sgt. Shannon Carr got right to the heart of why veterans make sacrifices in their own lives — they do it so that others don’t have to do the same.
Addressing a larger-than-normal crowd, Carr was transparent in saying that Saturday’s words were not her own. They were, in fact, written by a man named David Reavis.
None of it served to take away their poignancy, though.
“Some veterans bear visible signs of their service — a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye,” Carr recited. “Others may carry the evidence inside them — a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg — or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity.
Carr went on to relate that there is more to being a veteran than most people realize.
“Being a veteran means you are willing to give everything and expect nothing in return,” Carr recited. “It means that you volunteered to serve so others have a choice — the choice to say what you think, to worship as you choose, to be what you want to be, the choice to live where you want to live.”
This adds up to sacrifices small and great.
“ It can be a little sacrifice such as standing watch in the middle of the night. It can be a big sacrifice such as missing birthdays, anniversaries and holidays because duty called and you answered the call,” Carr said. “It could mean the ultimate sacrifice of laying down your life in the defense of your nation or your fellows. Whether you believe in the cause or not, it is that individual veteran who said, ‘with this selfless act of service I hereby lay down my life in order to benefit someone else.’ And that selfless act should never be forgotten.”
Being a veteran, also indicates “an unshakable bond” between those who bear the title.
“Seeing him or her and knowing he or she is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs,” Carr said.
“A veteran is someone who chokes up when he or she hears ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ torn between a combination of pride for having served, for longing of the days past, for relief that the watch has been turned over.
“A veteran is someone who hears the call of a bugle playing ‘Taps,’ the sound of a 21-gun salute, and pauses, knowing that a fellow soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is now is resting, their burden lifted.”
Following Carr’s words and the laying of wreaths at two memorials on the courthouse lawn, the ceremony concluded with the traditional 21-gun salute by the combined Greencastle VFW and American Legion Color Guard and the playing of “Taps,” no doubt inducing some of the emotions already mentioned by Carr.
But what does it mean to those of us who are not veterans? It’s really quite simple, according to Carr.
“So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say ‘Thank you,’” Carr said. “That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
“Two little words that mean a lot, ‘Thank you.’”