Warriors are the Peacemakers

Times-News had a letter to the editor in the Monday addition by Dave Crockett. In the letter he is complaining that we honor the warriors that keep us free with memorials. He states by doing this we glorify war and its profits, and ignore the peacemakers. This couldn't be further from the truth. I come from a family that served in our nations armed forces from the beginning; the Revolution, the Civil War, World War I & II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and conflicts unnamed. They did not fight for glory, they fought for freedom and peace.

Ronald Reagan on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day at Omaha Beach said, " We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free." Through memorials we do not honor war, we honor the warrior peacemaker. We honor the sacrifices that our young men and women make to insure we have peace.

Crockett spoke of Ellen McDaniel-Weissler, and Craig Etchison. These people do not advocate peace, they rail against war. They offer no solution to the dictator that wants to take away peace and freedom through force of arms. Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak, or the timid."

These memorials we erect honor the real peacemakers the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that defend this nation in times of war and peace. Mr. Crockett is free to speak his mind because a solider stood his ground at Bunkerhill. He is free to speak his mind because another solider made a charge a Gettysburg. He is free because a Marine went over the top at Belleau Wood, because a sailor stayed at his gun at Pearl Harbor, and because an airman flew his B-17 to Berlin.

Nobody longs for peace more than the soldier, and nobody will secure peace but the solider. When you sleep safe in your bed tonight, thank.. no... honor the soldier that is thousands of miles away from his family in a place he doesn't want to be, for he is the true peacemaker.