Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Senator Paul Gazelka: “I offer my deepest thanks to our veterans”
Across the country, Americans are sharing stories of the courage, sacrifice and heroism displayed by our veterans. On Veterans’ Day, we gather in our community to honor all those who have so selflessly sacrificed in defense of our country to guarantee that freedom and democracy would prevail in trying times.
It was during World War II that America lost the most lives defending our freedom and democracy. More than 670 thousand soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice fighting a monstrous tyranny. Billie Brown, for whom this legion is named, is among those fallen heroes from World War II. In the fall of 1941, just a few weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor, young men from the Brainerd Lakes area National Guard were the first U.S. Tanks deployed on foreign soil. As part of the 194th Tank Battalion, Billie Brown and Company A were sent to the Philippines in support of its defense from a possible Japanese attack.
After just a few months of intense combat in the Philippines, Billie and Company A from the Brainerd Lakes area were captured and brutally treated on what is known as the Bataan Death March. Billie never made it home to Minnesota; he died in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines.
It was heroes like Billie and the company of men from the Brainerd Lakes area that made up what President Franklin Roosevelt called the “great arsenal of democracy.” Without their bravery and the bravery of veterans who stepped forward in later wars, our world today would be very different.
It’s hard to say if we could all be so generous with our lives. But this Veterans’ Day, we should be incredibly grateful that most of us will never have to find out -- because of the bravery and selflessness of those who are willing to fight on our behalf. Please keep those men and women and their families in your thoughts and prayers today and always. They carry more than their share of this country’s weight. Without their willingness to carry out the actions our leaders deem necessary, our nation would be less than great. And for that, I offer my deepest thanks to our veterans.
Senator Paul Gazelka
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