Remember and honor

Dozens of community members gathered together Monday, May 30, at Holyoke Cemetery for a Memorial Day service to remember the lives of those who have served. The morning’s events included the pledge of allegiance, raising of the flag, prayer, songs, speakers, placing of memorial wreaths and the color guard salute. The flag was raised by Dennis Jelden and Kim Dickmeyer, and Pastor Mike Brown opened and closed the ceremony with prayer. The Holyoke High School band played “My Country ’Tis of Thee” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and Aaron Cottam played taps. Mike, Emmy and Elly Brown performed “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.” At the end of the ceremony, everyone was invited to the flag burning ceremony at the Vets Hall, where they retired over 200 flags.

Monday’s guest speaker was Lt. Col. Bob Russell. His speech, which he shared with the Enterprise, follows.

It is truly a privilege to be asked again to share a few thoughts with you on this Memorial Day. I want to thank Steve Millage and the VFW board for asking me to come back to one of my favorite destinations — Holyoke, my hometown — to speak on this recurring occasion.

As I have previewed on other visits, Memorial Day — formerly called “Decoration Day” — is a time for honoring not only the men and women heroes of our armed forces but the families that have supported all of us in our life’s challenges.

I thank God that I made it through 20 years of Air Force duties without injury, captivity or death, and I sincerely empathize with any of you who have had family members not quite as fortunate. If you have friends or relatives who are serving in our military, I pray that they remain safe and return home as soon as possible.

Since last Memorial Day, we have seen some noteworthy changes in our nation’s involvement in world events. For example, we have considerably reduced our presence in Iraq, nearly coming to an end of a long battle to justify our intent to bring to justice those who mercilessly attacked our nation on Sept. 11 just over 20 years ago. In our Middle East war, we have killed or brought to justice a number of notable terrorist leaders, and we have refined our policies of protection from further attacks.

On the other hand, we see a two-edged result in the war waged in Afghanistan since Sept. 11. We have spent $8 trillion, and 7,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines lost their lives in a 20-year battle that did not result in any kind of “victory.” Seeing no end to the conflict, I supported the decision to withdraw our forces and bring our warriors home.

However, the way that the withdrawal was conducted was perhaps the most embarrassing and incredulous operation I have observed in my military career. To basically agree with terms laid down by Al Qaeda and the Taliban, then announce exactly what we planned to do — withdrawing arbitrarily on a specified date and leaving behind Americans and their Afghani allies — just to prove a political point was tragic and senseless.

In my view, the most senior persons in civilian leadership and high-ranking generals in the military should be held liable for this horrible decision.

I pray that we do not repeat this in the future for any other conflict we find ourselves engaged in. It is a dishonor to those who wear the uniform and to the families of those in harm’s way. We need to have clear-cut objectives and, should we withdraw troops from any other country or area, it should be done on our terms — not the enemy’s terms — and safely. And we need to support our allies that help us wage combat operations, including safely extricating them from danger if they so desire.

Currently, we find ourselves in the midst of a very dangerous world. As we all know, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an effort to reassemble the Soviet Union, mercilessly attacked the country of Ukraine in February, not for any military reasons, but simply to violently take over an independent country with huge resources — oil, gas, wheat and many rare materials — and bring them back under his control.

I believe one of the reasons Putin decided now was the time to aggressively move on Ukraine was due to America’s hesitancy to act and the incredulous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Putin senses that America is tired of war, and he also knows that our support for Ukraine will be limited to providing resources but not in actual combat, lest a war between America and Russia would ensue.

Putin has also sensed, quite astutely, that NATO has to be very careful in their aid to Ukraine. NATO needs the oil and gas that Russia can provide, and they also don’t want Putin to go “nuclear” in his aggressive actions.

For the United States, this is a very perilous time. Not only is Russia a country we need to deal with, but the president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, would love to initiate efforts to take back Taiwan. Also, North Korea continues to launch “practice” missiles; at any time, we could see an attack on South Korea, Japan, the Philippines or even the United States by Kim Jong-un.

Furthermore, I predict that we are not done in the Middle East — another terrorist attack on our country and we could find ourselves back in Afghanistan or Iraq.

The big question, then, is, “Can America fight on multiple fronts?” should these rogue nations all act near-simultaneously. I pray there are senior leaders contemplating this as time marches on.

I have no detailed information about the other services, but my Air Force information available (much of it “open source,” by the way) tells a sad tale. In my latest Air Force magazine, our fighter force is aging rapidly. The 218 remaining A-10 “Warthogs” (the Army’s favorite Air Force asset for killing enemy tanks and supporting ground troops) are now 40 years old; the F-15C Eagle that I flew is also 40 years old, and there are only 234 of them left.

The 84 F-15EX jets that are being built (a modernized two-seat Eagle) will help, but many more might be needed, and recently, Congress is reducing the number of those to be built. The marvelous F-16 “Viper” (as the pilots call it) is 38 years old, though it has been upgraded considerably over the years.

The F-22 Raptor, the first fifth generation stealth fighter developed, was cut from the planned 650-plus production figure to 185, and it has some issues that need serious attention. Some older F-22s are now being phased out. The F-35 Lightning II for which I helped develop the cockpit is rapidly coming online, but already Congress is considering slashing its full buy for the Navy, Marines and Air Force. A Next Generation Fighter is on the drawing boards but won’t be ready for combat for years.

In addition, the defense budget is strained. Two new Air Force One aircraft are being built, and Boeing expects to lose a billion dollars on that deal; a new series of tanker jets are being developed, but have been fraught with issues; and there are a number of remotely piloted vehicles that need improvement, not to mention missiles and other weapons.

I am sure the other services have a number of items that they need also. All of this comes at a time when our country has a $23 trillion debt and we have spent trillions on social programs, infrastructure and COVID-related issues.

In other words, my simple assessment is that America, though it has the best trained, most capable military in the world, would be hard pressed to defend our interests or support our allies if we were faced with aggression by Russia, China, North Korea or radical Islam in the Middle East.

However — and that is a big “however” — I don’t want to leave you with a totally pessimistic view. One of my favorite presidents was Ronald Reagan, who served from 1981-1989. In his first inaugural address, Reagan made comments related to our nation that are perfectly applicable to a Memorial Day observation.

I have modified his speech ever so slightly and offer some of his observations.

President Reagan said, “If we look to the answer as to why, for so many years, we achieved so much and prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here, in this land, we unleashed the energy and individual genius of men and women to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price.

“Those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes just don’t know where to look. George Washington, father of our country, Thomas Jefferson, the architect of the Declaration of Independence, and Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, are all heroes in our nation.

“On the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery there is row on row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. Each one of those markers is a monument to the kinds of heroes America needed. Military lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.”

Former President Reagan was alive when Sept. 11 occurred, but his health had deteriorated to the point that he was unable to see the total effects of the tragedy or the will of our nation to seek justice for the attacks. I am sure he would have been incredibly proud of our armed forces as we battled Al Qaeda, ISIS and other radical Islamic forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. His bold stance, optimism for American ingenuity and the defense of our freedom combined to cause the demise of the Soviet Union, and, as we are seeing now, Putin is trying to regain his satellite nations.

Last month was the 80th year — hard to believe — since the infamous “Doolittle Raid” was conducted during WWII. On April 18, 1942, 16 North American B-25s, commanded by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, took off from the USS Hornet and bombed Tokyo. The surprise raid by land-based bombers that took off from an aircraft carrier was part of the reason we won the war — the other being the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. For the effort, Doolittle was promoted to brigadier general (skipping full colonel) and was awarded the Medal of Honor.

By the way, I loved the article in The Holyoke Enterprise last month about Holyoke resident Hardie Richards. As the article explained, this young Marine, enlisted at 18 and recalled at 22, served our country well during WWII and the Korean War.

Marine Richards was on a boat headed to Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped. His plans were then changed and focused on Korea. His unit stormed the east coast of Korea, challenged by a 60-70-foot high tide.

As a staff sergeant in charge of a machine gun crew, Richards suffered injuries from an artillery attack, the shrapnel going through his body and out his back. Fortunately, he was dragged out of harm’s way and a Navy corpsman on a hospital ship tended to his injuries. He was awarded a well-deserved Purple Heart, and the now 95-year-old veteran from Texas relocated eventually to Holyoke.

Richards exemplifies our service men and women who defend this nation. I am a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, an organization that honors veterans’ families at cemeteries and the adage “All gave some and some gave all” is seen on many patches adorning the vests we wear. Hardie gave his country “his best,” and I salute him for that.

Who knows what will take place in the next 12 months. Of course, there will be a Memorial Day event next May, as we continue to celebrate our fallen heroes and families. I just pray we are not in another war or perhaps more than one. America remains the greatest nation on earth — in spite of a number of challenges — let us work to keep it that way.

In conclusion, our Lord, Jesus Christ, in John 15:13 said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” I know some of you have lost loved ones over the years in defense of this nation, and I pray more lives are not lost in the future.