百年历史的美国老兵组织在阵亡将士纪念日的演讲

陌上美国

每年五月的最后一个周一，是美国的阵亡将士纪念日，也意味着夏季的开始。美国人在这天举行仪式，纪念自开国以来为捍卫国家而牺牲的百万将士。

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下面是总部位于印第安纳州的拥有百年历史的美国老兵组织(American Legion)在阵亡将士纪念日的演讲：

每次危机也是英雄涌现的时刻。在9/11袭击中，英雄是“最快响应急救员”，其他人逃离灾难现场时，他们向燃烧中倒塌的建筑物逆行。现在，在冠状病毒大流行期间，最引人注目的英雄是专业医护人员，他们在冒着生命危险拯救他人。

这些英雄与今天我们在此纪念的人——美国退伍老兵和阵亡将士们有很多共同点。他们为他人的生命，牺牲了自己。他们既普通也精英。

他们有着精英的品格。为他人献出生命，这是无私的最终定义。

他们也普通，因为他们代表了我们国家的多样的根基。他们有富人也有穷人，有黑人也有白人，有男人也有女人。他们来自各个种族和背景。

简而言之，他们看起来像我们中的任何一个。

当我们为COVID-19大流行期间，医护人员的无私和不倦的表现赞叹的时候，这让我们想起战场上牺牲自己生命的军医和护士们。

三等兵药剂师副手杰克·威廉姆斯(Jack Williams)，就是一位这样的英雄。75年前海军攻打硫磺岛时，他献出了年仅20岁的生命。

1945年3月3日，威廉姆斯所在部队的海军陆战队队员詹姆斯·诺顿(James Naughton)被手榴弹炸伤。在敌人强大的火力下，威廉姆斯将诺顿拖到一个浅洼处，为他包扎治疗。威廉姆斯用自己的身体作为掩护，被流弹击中了四次。然而他继续去救人。

在帮助了诺顿之后，威廉姆斯包扎了自己的伤口。尽管他忍受着巨大的痛苦，但他随后继续治疗了另一名海军陆战队队员。在向后方撤退时，他被狙击手的子弹击中牺牲。因为他的英勇行为，威廉姆斯被授予英雄荣誉勋章。

我们同时缅怀沙龙·莱恩(Sharon Lane)中尉这样的退伍军人。

据为她写传记的作者菲利普·比格勒(Philip Bigler)的记载，莱恩中尉全心投入她的护士工作。在科罗拉多州任职期间，她主动要求调往越南。

她在1968年写给父母的一封信中说：“每周要工作6、7天，每天至少要忙12个小时。”

她的奉献精神是显而易见的，包括对待那些用暴力、咒骂和吐口水向他们反抗的被俘虏的越共士兵。

1969年6月8日凌晨，一枚苏联制造的火箭袭击了莱恩所在的医院。年仅25岁的莱恩中尉牺牲。

如果她还活着，她的护士技能可能仍会在当前危机中使我们受益。

但是，并非所有在COVID-19大流行期间工作的英雄都来自医疗保健行业。包括超市人员，急救人员，送货员和餐厅的雇员，等等，都在为保证社会正常运转而用自己的健康安危承担着风险。这类勇敢付出的人还有许多许多。

在军队的每个领域中，都有不同的英雄。包括卡车司机，厨师和行政文官，都需要付出牺牲，承担风险。海陆空三军的所有将士，服兵役意味着承担巨大的风险。

小罗伊·奈特(Roy Knight，Jr.)是位美国空军的飞行员。1967年5月19日，他驾驶飞机在老挝胡志明市执行任务时被敌军击落。奈特被追授为上校。去年，美国国防部战俘/MIA审计局的一个联合小组发现并确认了奈特的遗体。

当他的遗体到达德州达拉斯的爱心原野小飞机场时，一群人聚集在一起，目睹了覆盖国旗的棺木从西南航空公司的飞机上，被有尊严地转移到军事仪仗队手中的过程。整个仪式庄严肃穆。

该架西南航空的飞机是由一名前空军老兵，奈特(Knight)上校的儿子布莱恩·奈特(Bryan Knight)驾驶的。在老奈特向家人告别出发越南时候，布莱恩当时只有五岁。

这是这些英雄们留下的又一种遗产，包括他们的儿子，女儿，悲伤的父母，祖父母和朋友。

他们采取的英勇行为包括保护自己的战友们。比如伊拉克第七海军陆战队第三营的班长，下士杰森·邓纳姆(JasonDunham)。

2004年4月14日，他所在的小队接近丰田陆地巡洋舰。他的小队在敌人的车上发现AK-47等武器，敌军叛乱分子与该纵队随即进行了直接的战斗。对方司机投下了一枚手榴弹。

为了拯救他的海军陆战队队员，邓纳姆下士做出了最后的牺牲。他挡在了手榴弹前面，情急之下试图用头盔减弱爆炸力量。手榴弹碎片只伤到了几个战友，没有给其他人造成致命威胁。但是八天后，因此身负重伤的邓纳姆(Dunham)去世。

邓纳姆下士用自己的生命救了其他海军陆战队队员。因为他表现出的无畏精神，邓纳姆也被授予英雄荣誉勋章。

自这个伟大的联邦成立以来，大约有100万美国军人为捍卫美国而丧生。

并非所有人都死于敌人的火力。一些人死于战区附近爆发的疾病。不少情况下，疾病和事故造成的死亡人数，多于敌方武器造成的人员伤亡。

在美国西班牙战争期间，全部由非裔将士组成的第24步兵团的60名士兵，自愿担任护士，其中36人后来死于黄热病或疟疾。

一代人之后，在第一次世界大战期间，西班牙大流感杀死了在法国的将近16,000名美国士兵。另有30,000名美军服役人员死在美属军营。这些人本可以安全地在家中隔离。但是他们知道自己有更重要的事情。一个需要完成的使命。他们要为国家服务。

即使当敌人是看不见的病毒或微小的细菌时，将士们所作的牺牲也同样有意义。美军已经因COVID-19失去了一些服役人员。

在这个阵亡将士纪念日，我们将继续向那些在战斗中为我们牺牲的人们致敬，让我们停下来，怀念那些为他人服务献出了生命的人们。

愿上帝保佑他们，愿上帝保佑今天在这里纪念他们的每一位人。

谢谢。

***

Read full speech below.

Every crisis has new heroes. During the 9/11 attacks, theywere the first responders running into burning and crumbling buildings asothers ran out. Now, during theCoronavirus pandemic, the most visible heroes are the health care professionals,who are saving others and risking their own lives while doing so.
These heroes have much in common with the people that wehonor today – America’s fallen veterans. They are men and women who havesacrificed their own lives so others could live. They are both elite andordinary. They are elite in the sense of character. Giving your life so otherscould live is the ultimate definition of selfless.
They are ordinary in the fact that they represent thediverse fabric of our country. They are rich and poor, black and white, maleand female. They come from every ethnicity and background. In short, they lookedlike anyone of us.
As we celebrate the selfless and untiring performances ofthe healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, it brings to mind themilitary medics, doctors and nurses who sacrificed their lives while treatingothers on the battlefield.
One such hero was Pharmacist Mate Third Class JackWilliams. The Navy Reserve corpsman was only 20 years old when he landed on IwoJima 75 years ago.
On March 3, 1945, James Naughton, a Marine in Williams’unit, was wounded by a grenade. Whileunder intense enemy fire, Williams dragged Naughton to a shallow depression andtreated his wounds. Williams used his own body as a screen and was shot fourtimes. Yet he continued.
After he treated Naughton, Williams dressed his ownwounds. He then proceeded to treatanother Marine, despite his own immense pain. While heading to the rear, he washit by a sniper’s bullet and killed. Forhis actions, Petty Officer Williams was awarded the Medal of Honor.
We also remember Army veterans like Lieutenant Sharon Lane.
According to her biographer, Philip Bigler, Lt. Lane threwherself into her work as a nurse. While serving in Colorado, she requested atransfer to Vietnam.
“There, at least, you are busy 12 hours a day, six or sevendays a week,” she said in a 1968 letter to her parents.
Her dedication was obvious, even as she treated enemy VietCong soldiers who would return the favor by kicking, cursing and spitting attheir American captors.
In the early morning of June 8, 1969, Sharon’s tour of dutyended. A Soviet-built rocket struck the hospital. Lieutenant Sharon A. Lane waskilled in action at age 25.
If she were still here, her skills as a nurse might stillbe benefiting us during the current crisis. But not all of the heroes workingduring the COVID-19 pandemic are in the healthcare industry. Grocers, firstresponders, delivery workers and drive-through restaurant employees are just afew of the many people that we rely on to provide vital services for societywhile risking their own safety.
The military also has heroes in every occupational field. Truckdrivers, cooks and administrative clerks have all paid the ultimate price. Atsea, on land or in the air – military service requires great risk.
Roy Knight, Jr. was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. On May19, 1967, he was shot down while attacking a target on the Ho Chi Minh trail inLaos. He was posthumously promoted to colonel. Last year, a joint team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agencydiscovered and later identified Col. Knight’s remains.
When his remains arrived at Dallas’s Love Field, a crowdhad gathered to witness the dignified transfer of the flag-draped casket fromthe Southwest Airlines jet into the receptive arms of the military honor guard.One observer reported that the entire crowd fell silent.
The Southwest flight was piloted by another Air Forceveteran, Col. Knight’s son, Bryan. Bryan Knight was only five-years-old when hesaid goodbye to his father as the elder Knight left for Vietnam.
This is yet another legacy that these heroes leave behind.A legacy that includes their sons, daughters, grieving parents, grandparentsand friends.
Their heroic actsare sometimes performed to protect those with whom they serve. Corporal JasonDunham was a squad leader with the Third Battalion, 7th Marines inIraq.
On April 14, 2004, his squad approached a Toyota LandCruiser. After his squad discovered AK-47s in the vehicle, the enemy insurgentexited and engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with the unit. The driver dropped a grenade.
To save his fellow Marines, Corporal Dunham made theultimate sacrifice. He threw himself on the grenade and tried to use his helmetto shield the blast. Severely wounded by the grenade’s fragments, Cpl. Dunhamwas taken off life-support eight days later.
Corporal Dunham died so other Marines could live. He, too,was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry.
Approximately one million men and women of the U.S.military have lost their lives in defense of our nation since the founding ofthis great Republic.
Not all have died from enemy fire. Some have died fromdiseases that have too often festered around war zones. Often times, deaths from disease and accidentsoutnumbered casualties caused by enemy weapons.
During the Spanish American War, 60 soldiers of theall-black 24th Infantry Regiment volunteered to serve as nurses.Thirty-six of them would later die of yellow fever or malaria.
A generation later, the flu would kill nearly 16,000 U.S.soldiers in France during World War I. Another 30,000 American service members died in stateside camps. These men and women could have isolated safely in their homes. But they knew they had an important job to do. A mission to accomplish. They were all on a mission toserve.
Even when the enemy is an invisible virus or a microscopicgerm, the sacrifices made are just as meaningful. The U.S. military has alreadylost servicemembers to COVID-19.
This Memorial Day as we continue to honor those who fellfor us in battle, let’s also pause to remember those who have also sacrificedtheir lives while serving others.
May God bless them and may God bless you for rememberingthem here today.
Thank you.