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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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HOW COME WE’VE ALL HEARD OF PAT TILLMAN….BUT NO ONE KNOWS JASON DUNHAM?

After all, Jason Dunham WON THE MEDAL OF HONOR (posthumously, since he gave his life for his buddies)

“His was a selfless act of courage to save his fellow Marines,” Sgt. Maj. Daniel A. Huff of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, was quoted as saying in Marine Corps News that April.

“He knew what he was doing,” Lance Cpl. Jason A. Sanders, 21, of McAllester, Oklahoma, who was in Dunham’s company, was quoted as saying by Marine Corps News. “He wanted to save Marines’ lives from that grenade.”

Can you name for me a SINGLE living Medal of Honor winner…...?

Why is that? Not so very long ago, these guys were national heroes, and virtually everyone knew their names—movies were made about them…remember Audie Murphy? In Peter Collier’s boyhood,

figures such as Jimmy Doolittle, Audie Murphy and John Basilone were household names. And it was assumed that what they had done defined us as well as them, telling us what kind of nation we were. But the 110 Medal recipients alive today are virtually unknown except for a niche audience of warfare buffs. Their heroism has become the military equivalent of genre painting. There’s something wrong with that.

Until recently, many Seventh-day Adventists could immediately have named a living Medal of Honor winner, because he was “one of us”....Desmond Doss, the only conscientious objector to win the nation’s highest award for bravery beyond the call of duty. But Cpl Doss died recently, and I’m ashamed to say that I do not know the name of even one of those who remain alive. You may ask why it matters, as I believe it does. PETER COLLIER’S ARTICLE says it most succinctly.

We impoverish ourselves by shunting these heroes and their experiences to the back pages of our national consciousness. Their stories are not just boys’ adventure tales writ large. They are a kind of moral instruction. They remind of something we’ve heard many times before but is worth repeating on a wartime Memorial Day when we’re uncertain about what we celebrate. We’re the land of the free for one reason only: We’re also the home of the brave.

We can all remedy the problem - buy THE BOOK and get acquainted with more than 100 heroes living in our midst. On those occasions that you become aware of the blessings of liberty, thank these men and the millions like them who fought and died to give us this gift.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/28 at 10:38 AM

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