The Sacred Sacrifice We Honor Today
Remembering the thousands of Americans who gave their lives in defense of freedom.
And all of those who died in all America’s wars ultimately died for the sake of preserving freedom. This was not the fate they wanted. Most if not all of those who died at Midway or in the Argonne Forest or at Gettysburg or in the streets of Hue and Fallujah never intended to give their lives away, certainly not without a fight. But volunteer or draftee, officer or buck private, the moment they took their oath of service they presented their lives willingly for that sacrifice — which is where far too many ended. The sacral nature of this willing sacrifice needs to be understood and appreciated — even revered.
.. General Douglas MacArthur did. It was why he liked to compare the military life to a priesthood: that the sacrifice unto death entailed in America’s military services was one that ranked with the sacrifice of the Son of God Himself.
“It is my humble belief that the relation which He came to establish was based on sacrifice,” MacArthur once said, “and that men and women who follow in His train are called by it to the defense of certain priceless principles, even at the cost of their own lives.”