I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
American soldier and spy Nathan Hale was born on this day in 1755. Hale volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City during the American Revolutionary War. He was captured and executed by the British on September 22, 1776.
One hundred and sixty-eight years later, Americans and British were on the same side as allied forces invaded Normandy in the largest air, land, and see invasion in history. This was the beginning of the end of World War II.
Just a couple of years ago, I portrayed General Eisenhower’s Groundskeeper outside of his headquarters near Portsmouth, Hampshire in England for the Night at the Quartermaster Museum at Ft. Lee. My character intercepted the envelope with the invasion plans which I promptly shared with the night’s visitors to the museum.
I’m pretty sure those plans would never have fallen into the hands of a gardener. And, if perchance they did, the invading forces would have saved back enough ammunition for a firing squad.
240 years after Hale made that statement, men and women are still giving their lives for this country, and for our freedom.
While we can certainly question the leadership of those making decisions to send our young people into war (that’s a bipartisan questioning by the way), what we cannot, or should not question is the dedication of those who wear the uniform of this country.
Whatever your beliefs about military and about war, you can freely have them because of the people who have worn that uniform.
I could gripe about today being Monday, and by the time you read this, I may very well have done just that.
But I hope that I will pause, however briefly, to remember and thank those who fought so that I could freely gripe.
I have to drag my behind to work, and while there may be people barking at me with unreasonable demands, there’s little chance that I’ll have people shooting at me.
Unless, you know, I go to a gun-free zone like Chicago…oh wait…did I just go there?
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