Jake Rappe: We Don't Serve to Get Something in Return

If you weren't able to make it to the Memorial Day celebration and ceremony at , you missed talking about the importance having gratitude plays in all our lives.

The following is a copy of the speech he gave:

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for attending today’s ceremony. Members of the Honoring All Veterans Memorial Committee, thank you for the honor of inviting me to speak today.

“Our gratitude can find no more perfect expression than to bulwark with loyalty and patriotism those principles for which the free peoples of the earth fought and died.”  — Woodrow Wilson. 

It is gratitude that I wish to talk about today. Whether a volunteer or a draftee, the veterans gathered here today, and those whose names have been immortalized on these monoliths, have answered our country’s call to arms in her defense to express our gratitude for the ideals and principles this great nation was founded upon. We answered that call to show gratitude to our mothers for giving us life by placing our own in danger, and for some of us sacrificing that life, to keep them safe as they kept us safe. In gratitude for those who have gone before us who used their last breath to cry out for their mother as they lay on the field of battle, never forgetting their struggle to vouchsafe and maintain our freedom and our way of life.

General James Doolittle said of pilots under his command while training for their campaign on Japan in World War II:

“There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.” 

No service member serves in order to get something in return. That is why when the strong heart that volunteers something even as simple as saying, “thank you,” gives their time and talent to visit a stranger, makes a donation to aide in research and to help understand and treat the myriad new and unseen injuries befalling returning veterans today, all the way to the strong hearts who conceived and created such an overwhelming display of gratitude that is this memorial, we as veterans, and the families of those whose roll have been called up yonder, cannot express in words or deeds how grateful we are for such an extraordinary honor.

When I was called upon to serve in Iraq, there were a great many things for me to be thankful for, strange though that may sound. I was thankful to serve a country whose military was funded well enough to provide me with the equipment I needed to effectively preform my duties. I was thankful for a hot meal and a cold drink of clean water. I was thankful for a soft bed at night. I was thankful for the luxury air conditioning, when it was working. I was also thankful for the love and support of my friends and family back home that were always on my mind. But I was the most thankful for the friendship and camaraderie of the men and women who served alongside me. For it was from their bravery that I was able to draw strength and courage. I placed my life in their hands every day and trusted that they would always have my six. I will never forget that on the day of the attack where I sustained my injury, how quickly my friends sprang into action to see to my safety. And not just the crew who were with me on patrol that day, but the many support staff at the clinic on base who were ready at a moment’s notice and who were standing in wait outside as we arrived to receive me give me aide, the flight crew who bravely flew unescorted to the combat hospital in Baghdad, and to the rest of my unit who took it upon themselves to make the smallest gesture to clean my gear and who waited with baited breathe to learn of my wellbeing. To them, I could never be able to fully repay the deep debt that I owe.

After my term of service ended, the friends I said goodbye to in the 101st, whom I trusted to continue the fight in my stead, were called upon for a second time to stand vigilant watch over our way of life by putting themselves in harm’s way in Iraq and drawing a line in the sand that none dare cross. When I heard the news that a friend of mine bravely laid down her life for me and for all of us here at home, I was of course greatly saddened, but I was also very grateful. As I remember Jessica, I think back with fondness of how giving she was. My memories of her fill me with joy and warmth, and always make me smile. I give thanks that I knew such a brave heroine, who, as a medic, was willing to charge headlong into a den of lions with no regard for her own safety to render a healing hand to her neighbor. Doing so with no sword in her hand like David facing the Philistine giant. I am grateful to God that she is now kept in His care, for as the Prophet Isaiah teaches us:

“But now thus saith the Lord Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they will not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I AM the Lord thy God, thy savior. Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.”

For the families of those who have gone before us, it is my hope that they can come to this place and remember their brave loved ones at this memorial, even if they are buried at sea, on foreign soil, are missing in action, or whose final resting place is known only to God. Let this place be a balm to heal the grief stricken soul.  But let this place also be one of joy and great pride, where the generations to come can bring the children and show them the grandeur of this memorial, and to help them understand that this place but a small representation of the esteem that I know I feel in my heart when I look at all that surrounds me here. It is here that we will tell the children, “Do you see that name, that’s your grandpa,” or, “That name there, that’s daddy’s sister,” so that they too can hear the stories of bravery and sacrifice of the names etched here on these stones and etched in our hearts and minds, and, thanks to all of you, are now etched in history.

Navy veteran and President John F. Kennedy wrote in his 1963 Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation:

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” 

Those of you gathered here today, and especially those who made it possible for this memorial to come into being and those who are overseeing it; you have certainly heeded Lieutenant Kennedy’s words of advice by living your gratitude. I only hope that I too can find a way to live my gratitude for all my brothers and sisters in arms for their sacrifices, to my friend Jessica, and for all of you for this extraordinary gift. So it is with great fondness and warm regards that I offer my deepest and most heartfelt thank you to all of you who have stood before me, stood beside me, and who will stand behind me. Your thoughtful deeds and continued efforts have made this world brighter.

I will part from you by paraphrasing these words, again from President Kennedy:

“Let us gather to express our gratitude for the glorious gifts of God; and let us earnestly and humbly pray that He will continue to guide and sustain us in the great unfinished tasks of achieving peace, justice, and understanding among all men and nations and of ending misery and suffering wherever they exist.” 

Thank you, and may God bless you all.