On Memorial Day, 2006

Memorial Day is about one thing - remembing the soldiers who traded their lives for ours, who put themselves in between us and danger and spent their lives so that we can have the lives we all live today.

In that spirit, I want to draw everyone’s attention to a roster of heroes, collected by McQ at the Q and O blog as part of his ongoing effort called “Project Hero”. Each of these heroes were decorated for their service in Afghanistan or Iraq and, to my knowledge, none have received anything but the most cursory mention from any of our national media outlets.

I invite you to read the stories of unvarnished bravery and sacrifice from these amazing soldiers whose heroism ought to encourage and and inspire us all and whose unselfish and faithful service ought to shame those who disparage their efforts or who pointedly ignore them entirely.

1LT Brian Chontosh: Navy Cross
PFC Daniel McClenney: Silver Star
PVT Dwayne Turner: Silver Star
MSG Robert Collins & SFC Danny Hall: Silver Star
SSG William Thomas Payne: Silver Star
CPT Christoper J. Bronzi: Silver Star
SSG Charles Good: Silver Star
SR AMN Jason D. Cunningham: Air Force Cross
PFC Jeremy Church: Silver Star
SGT Leigh Ann Hester: Silver Star
CSM Ron Riling: Silver Star
CPL Jason L. Dunham: nominee, Medal of Honor
PFC Joseph Perez: Navy Cross
COL James Coffman, Jr: Distinguished Service Cross
1LT Karl Gregory: Silver Star
1LT Brian Stann: Silver Star
MSG Anthony Pryor: Silver Star
TSGT John Chapman: Air Force Cross
MSG Sarun Sar: Silver Star
1LT Jeffery Lee: Silver Star
SGT James Witkowski: Silver Star
SGT Timothy Connors: Silver Star
PO2 Juan Rubio: Silver Star

Today is also a day when we can contemplate a question asked by Pope Benedict XVI as he visited Auschwitz:

Rain fell sporadically over Auschwitz until the main ceremony, when the skies cleared and a rainbow appeared.

Benedict said it was almost impossible, particularly for a German Pope, to speak at such a horrible place.

“The place where we are standing is a place of memory and at the same time, it is the place of the Shoah,” he said.

“In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence which is a heartfelt cry to God — Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?”

“Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?”

Where was God? God was in the hearts of the Allied soldiers as they fought and bled and died to end the “endless” slaughter. God was in the will of the people of America and England and Australia and Canada and the other Allies as they bent their entire economies to support hundreds of thousands of brave soldiers who threw themselves at the evil that sought to envelop the world.

Here, the Pope is wrong. There was no endless slaughter, no real triumph of evil. The slaughter ended before its eventual goal was realized. Evil won a few victories but was thrown back in many others. Evil did not triumph. God did not remain silent. He spoke in the defiant voice of a man who looked into the face of death and said “Nuts” and in the ringing declaration to the Devil’s Own Hitler that “You do your worst - and we will do our best.”

Though a terrible crime was committed, we know that God was far from silent. He just didn’t speak in the voice of the Old Testament. But who expects him to except perhaps the naive or callously skeptical among us?

He still speaks today, in the actions of those who seek every day to make President John Kennedy’s promise to the world a reality:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge—and more.

P.S. Too bad that Google can’t see its way clear to honor the dead with a simple logo. Then again, who has time for that when you’re busy playing hired oppressor to a couple billions people in China?

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Category: Project Hero, The Good Old US of A