Happy 240th birthday to
the few, the proud, the United States Marine Corps! Myself and every other
American owe you all of our gratitude for what you have done and continue to do
to protect us. You are a group of the bravest men I’ve ever met, and I’m
forever grateful to each of you who saved my husband’s life. I’m also thankful
for Jason’s service and courage to fight through his injury. What a high
standard you Marines have set!
As we
celebrate this special birthday today, and honor our veterans tomorrow for
Veterans Day, a lot of thoughts pass through my mind. I realize that although
Jason retired from the Corps just a few months after we began dating, we still
were very much living in the military world. In a way, we always will, which is
an honor. He is no longer serving, but he will always be a Marine. I may have
never served, but I will always have a great respect for what “Semper Fi”
means.
Jason was
asked to speak tomorrow for Veterans Day at the high school I graduated from. I
would like to share with you a section of his speech that moved me deeply.
While Jason and any other Marine may be retired, they will forever have the
values running through their veins. Although we may not all be Marines, we
ought to get to know these values, and do our best to follow them throughout
life…
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| Sonoma Marine Corps Ball 2015 Thank you Wine Country Marines! |
“I am now a civilian. My time in the military has come to an
end, but I will always be a Marine. Everything that I was trained to be during
my service has stayed with me, and I give great credit to that. There are three
values in the Marine Corps, all of which each of us ought to embrace in our
daily lives, regardless of our various paths. These values are: honor, courage,
commitment. The first, honor, is one which is reserved for those individuals
and groups that you respect. Personally, I honor God, my family, the military,
and every hard working, respectful American. It is important to keep that which
you honor on the front of your mind, because your actions will reflect whatever
it is. The next value is courage. Most of you have an understanding to some level
of what courage is. We have all faced things that terrified us, and courage is
the decision to carry on and overcome. Courage is the driving force every time
we choose to move forward instead of give up or slow down. I have had to find
courage many times, from when I was a kid just trying to survive in a terrible
house, to facing an enemy in Afghanistan that had nothing but evil intentions
for my brothers and I. I forced myself to choose courage when I was in the
hospital and it would have been easier to close my eyes for good than to wake
up and fight every day just to breathe. Now, that courage propels me to do
better today than I did yesterday and to take on new challenges. Finally,
commitment. This is arguably one of the most difficult of the Marine Corps
values to maintain in any area of life. It is easy to sign up for something,
but harder to stick it out, especially when unexpected hurdles come up. Today,
I am committed to each of the things I honor. Having commitment means that
people can count on you, and they expect you to complete the task at hand. Most
leaders in the world are known for their commitment. It is what makes an
individual stand out above the rest. When someone stays true to what they began
and works at it with all their heart, people are likely to notice and to
follow. I encourage each of you to follow these Marine Corps values. Think of
what you honor, find the courage to stand by it no matter what the cost, and to
build the commitment to see it through, no matter what distractions arise.”
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“Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:15
Never forgotten.
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