Thank You For Your Service!

Well, greetings to your friends. This is Dick Foth with stories from the road. And it's a Veterans Day 2024, November 11th. Last week was election time. And it's Veterans Day this week. Those two times have one thing in common. The weather one is elected by the people in a county or a state or in the nation or whether a person has served the country in uniform. That thing in common is to, quote, defend the Constitution. To serve the nation, here's the language, to serve the nation by defending the Constitution. The Constitution is an architecture. It's an idea. It's a basis for keeping a nation free. Let me just read this to you. I'm holding in my hand a pocketbook copy. You can get these of the Constitution of the United States. This is how it reads. We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insured domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. To do that, to maintain freedom, to maintain a country that walks with others in mind, not just itself. It's a battle. And even on this morning, as our neighborhood is waking up and you might hear a car go by every now and again, there are people in place here and around the world who seek to maintain that. And we have two particular days of honoring those people. One is Memorial Day. The other is Veterans Day. Memorial Day honors those who died serving in the US military, especially those who died in battle or from battle wounds. And that's observed on the last Monday of May. Veterans Day today honors all veterans who served in the US military, both living and dead during peace time and wartime. It's observed on November 11th every year. There's a place that symbolizes that struggle or the challenge of maintaining freedom. One is a huge cemetery and the other is a huge building and they are adjacent to each other on the west side of the Potomac River across from Washington DC. One is Arlington National Cemetery and the other is what we call the Pentagon. And the folks at the Pentagon are always on duty while the folks buried in Arlington National Cemetery are always found in a place of remembering more than 400,000 are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, most are military. And on any given workday, more than 25,000 work at the Pentagon. Again, most are military. The Pentagon was supposed to be temporary and it was the brainchild of Army Brigadier General Brian B. Somerville, who in the early 1940s pitched it as a temporary solution to the then war departments critical shortage of space. So a plan was approved on interestingly enough September 11th, 1941 and construction began. 206 acres of land were designated for the building. An unbelievable amount of workers and materials were brought together. The grounds and building went up in 16 months. The building was officially completed in January of 1943 thanks to the help of a thousand architects and 14,000 tradesmen who worked three shifts around the clock. Folks still work at the Pentagon, three shifts around the clock. And today it's the home for the Office and Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, highest echelons of the Army Navy Marine Corps and Air Force. But these two places that hallowed ground called Arlington Cemetery and this this beehive of activity at the Pentagon are an intersection representing the defense of freedom. I like what Benjamin Franklin said where liberty dwells there is my country. I've had the privilege of going to the Pentagon numbers of times over the years. Once we moved to Washington DC in 1993. We were there 15 years from 93 to 2008. And on entering the Pentagon you get two questions. Who are you and what is your business here or who are you here to see? One of the first times I went there I went to meet with a new friend. Somebody he had introduced us by phone and this friend in Washington State asked if I could go see his friend at the Pentagon a retired three-star general, General Mick Kicklider. And in that conversation and many subsequent conversations with other people in the Pentagon this question would always come up. It wasn't a who are you or why are you here it was this one. Dick have you served? I was always in that awkward place especially when speaking to people who were currently in uniform because I said you know I had one semester of Air Force ROTC at Cal Berkeley in 1959. I don't think that qualifies as surface and they would kindly roll their eyes but not chordle too loudly as they walked away down the hall. But what is it about serving that makes us fully human, fully alive that kind of establishes dignity or achievement or even even authority in some way because when you serve people especially in a voluntary capacity when you serve another there's something freeing for both of you whether you're serving others serving the greater good I believe we are built for it in a strange way serving is a place of power not to be wielded but to be expressed. Many of you know and I've had them on this podcast before that I have a friend who served as head of the Navy for five years from 2000 to 2005. Had him over in Clark and when he first took that position just a few weeks after he took that or was given that position I walked into his office and said Dick I'm going to be talking to my admirals here in a couple of weeks and I just want to run these things by you that I'm going to say to them and he listed his five sort of leading thoughts and talking to these admirals and one cluster of the thoughts was this I want to be able to say to our admirals we have these 18 year olds 19 year olds who raised their right hand and commit to service they they commit to go in harm's way and they pledged to defend the constitution of the United States and what do we expect of them we expect them to do that but what can they expect of us and he said I want to tell them that we will give you the very best equipment we will give you the very best training you could find anywhere in the world but we will also teach you that to serve is a noble thing. So at Arlington National Cemetery you have the bodies of people who have served and given the last full measure of devotion. When you stand in the Lincoln Memorial and look at that magnificent statue of Abraham Lincoln on your left on that wall are chiseled the words of the Gettysburg address. On the right wall you have the words of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address which were spoken just a few weeks before he died. When you look at the Gettysburg address which was given at the dedication of the Gettysburg military cemetery in Pennsylvania just a few months after the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863 you have Abraham Lincoln saying this to begin four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. In the body of that text as he's speaking about dedicating the ground if you will he says this the brave men living in debt who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract the world of a little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here more than a hundred years later it's 150 years later in the spring of 2003 I had occasion to have several conversations with Dr. Bill Frist no Frist was a cardiothoracic surgeon from Tennessee and when I met him he was sent a majority leader from 2003 to 2007 who said he'd only served two terms which would be twelve years and that's what he did but he is quoted as saying this the valor and courage of our young women and men in the armed services are a shining example to all of the world and we owe them and their families our deepest respect what what is it about service well for me the greatest example model executor if you will of serving mankind is this person Jesus of Nazareth and those who have listened to these podcasts before know this that that he's not just my not just my hero but savior friend redeemer and to serve is a kingdom thing that has eternal consequence in the gospel of mark Jesus just before he goes to the cross to make the greatest sacrifice the last full measure of devotion in the gospel of mark chapter 10 verse 45 Jesus says it to his closest friends this way the son of man did not come to be served let's hear it again the son of man did not come to be served one more time the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many it's with that thought in mind that I say to all of you who have worn the cloth of the nation in the past or today were the cloth of the nation to defend that idea called the Constitution of the United States and to keep us free we are so grateful to you God bless you on this day and going forward thank you friends for listening to stories from the road and for your kindness and the things that you say and thank you also for inquiring about the audiobook with live audience that is about to be released on audible here in the next couple of weeks to hope it's called stories I love to tell to give us hope to help us do hard things and to bring us back together again if you wanted to be alerted to when it actually comes out if you can just go to dickfolk.com and give us your email address we will respond to that in a timely way let you know what's happening and what that's it for now we'll catch you next time yeah this is dickfolk signing up