Here is the text of the speech delivered by Matt Denn on Veterans Day 2010 at the Delaware Memorial Bridge War Memorial. Thank you veterans.
It is an honor to be with you this morning. Our Governor is overseas on a trip designed to create jobs here in Delaware. You have seen him through many Veterans Day commemorations, and you know that he would be here if he could.
Every Sunday, I take my twin five year old boys to Dunkin Donuts. We’ve been doing it for years. My boys think it is the greatest thing in the world, my wife gets some well-deserved sleep, and I get out of the whole deal for less than $10. There are many Sundays that I sit there, watching my boys laugh and eat, and think ‘I am an incredibly lucky guy.’
This past Sunday, U.S. Army Specialist Dale Kridlo from Pittston, Pennsylvania, also the father of young twins, was shot and killed by a sniper in Afghanistan. His father drove to Dover Air Force Base on Monday to claim his son’s body. Dale Kridlo was due to come home for Christmas this year. His family said that he was a Phillies fan, an Eagles fan, but most of all dedicated to his nine year old twin girls Madelyne and Zoe, who will now grow up without a father. This Veterans Day in Pittston is being marked with the flags at half mast for Dale Kridlo. Dale Kridlo sacrificed, his family has sacrificed, so that we might live and raise our families in the same great country, with the same extraordinary freedoms and opportunities, that you and I have enjoyed.
On this Veterans Day we must first and foremost give our thanks and pay our respects, to those who have served, those who have sacrificed, and the mothers, fathers, spouses, partners, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters who have sacrificed along with them. For Operation Enduring Freedom alone, it has been nine years of families sacrificing, often through multiple tours, and thousands of soldiers who have given their lives or suffered life altering injuries.
So today we give thanks, and we pay our respects, and that is important and necessary. But it is not sufficient. To those of you who have served, to the families of those who served or are in harm’s way today, we owe you two things.
First, we owe you our honest best efforts to support our soldiers and their families during their service and after their service. I know that some of you are here every year, and you may remember that a couple of years ago I told you that we got a bill passed in Dover to make it easier for surgeons to come out of retirement to work at the VA Hospital in Elsmere, without losing their insurance. Well, I got an e-mail from Dr. David Axon a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, an orthopedic surgeon who came out of retirement under this new program. He wrote, “I started at the [Delaware] VA in September of 2008….Two years later we’ve done about 500 orthopedic procedures…and I believe we’ve made a major difference in the quality of the lives of many of these vets. We’ve also started a joint replacement program in cooperation with the Lebanon VA ….” That is five hundred surgical procedures for Delaware veterans that otherwise would have had to be done in another state, or wouldn’t have been done at all. That is a great story. Yesterday, I had the privilege of being present for the opening of Fisher House on Dover Air Force Base, a facility that will provide comfort and convenient lodging to the families who travel to the base to receive the bodies of their loved ones killed in action. The opening of Fisher House is a great story. But we should have a dozen more great stories, stories about how we helped veterans get timely answers on disability applications, how we helped veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to find jobs. I think we owe it to you on Veterans Day not just to say “thanks” but to show you our gratitude in concrete deeds.
The second thing that we owe you is a country that is worthy of the sacrifice you have made. We who have the privilege to serve the public owe you our best efforts to mold a country you can be proud of. Because we all revere our flag, but you did not fight just for the flag, and we proudly sing our national anthem but you did not fight just for a song. You fought for the freedoms and rights enshrined in our Constitution, and beyond that, the boundless spirit, energy, and common purpose that have always been America’s hallmark. So we owe you more than chants of ‘USA’ or ‘We’re Number One,” we owe you a sincere effort to work together on fixing this country’s real problems. That doesn’t mean we won’t argue; one of the rights you fought for was our right to argue, to engage in free debate. But it does mean our goal must be solutions rather than confrontation. We owe you at least that much.
Each life newly lost in the defense of our country, each tragedy like Dale Kridlo’s, brings crushing sorrow, and new recognition of the overwhelming burden borne by a select few so that we and our children might have the privilege of living in what is still the greatest nation this earth has known. During World War II, Carl Sandburg said “There are freedom shouters. There are freedom whisperers. Both may serve. Have I, have you, been too silent?” On this Veterans Day, we thank you for the sacrifice you have made, and we loudly proclaim our obligation to honor that sacrifice.