[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 68 (Thursday, May 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4820-S4821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              MEMORIAL DAY

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, on this last Monday in May, Americans 
observe Memorial Day. On this day, we honor the fallen heroes of past 
and present wars, the mighty who have fallen in battle, by flying 
flags, laying wreaths at soldiers' graves, and other appropriate forms 
of tribute.
  On Monday, the mournful sound of taps will echo across the rows of 
headstones in quiet veterans' cemeteries and other cemeteries across 
the land. These will be followed by the sharp report of a 21-gun 
salute.
  Families across America may leaf through old boxes of photographs and 
remember their own losses--the doughboy uncle who fell in France in 
1918; the Marine Corps cousin lost on Tarawa in World War II; the Army 
nephew cut down in Korea; or the Navy pilot brother shot down over Binh 
Hoa in Vietnam; the sons lost so recently in Afghanistan. They will 
worry about family members on duty in farflung corners of the globe in 
Bosnia, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Afghanistan, Colombia, and in other 
distant places.
  Memorial Day is a time of public patriotism leavened by private 
grief.
  In my own State of West Virginia, that undercurrent of private grief 
is sharpened by recent loss. Last Sunday, Sgt. Gene Arden Vance of 
Morgantown was killed in Afghanistan while carrying out a surveillance 
patrol with other coalition forces. He was 38 years old. He leaves 
behind his wife Lisa, a young daughter, and many family members and 
friends.
  Sergeant Vance's sacrifice and the pride and suffering of his family 
remind us all of the human costs of war.
  Sergeant Vance's name now joins a long honor roll of West Virginia's 
patriots who have given their all whenever and wherever duty has 
called. He will be remembered in our hearts and honored each Memorial 
Day by all who loved him and all who love the Nation he served so well.
  Originally May 30, the Memorial Day holiday was moved for convenience 
sake to make a welcome 3-day weekend. Many people know Memorial Day 
only as a marker for the end of the school year, the beginning of 
summer, the opening of the neighborhood pool or the start of the 
barbecue season. Few recall its roots in the civil war, or its gradual 
evolution from ``Decoration Day'' as it was called when I was a boy, to 
honor fallen civil war soldiers to a day to honor the dead from all 
wars. But this year, as fresh graves scar the landscape, the grim 
reminder of the human costs of this strange new war on terrorism, I 
think perhaps more people will hang an American flag by their door or 
wear a red poppy on their lapel. The wave of visible patriotism that 
blossomed in the aftermath of September 11 has faded somewhat. The 
flags may be tattered and torn, the signs and banners mostly gone, but 
the powerful emotion still surges in our veins. In Memorial Day, I 
suspect that the red, white, and blue will reemerge with vigor.
  It is reassuring to me to see Americans so proud of their flag, their 
Nation, the men and women in uniform. It is reassuring to see how 
dearly we hold the rights and liberties that are the legacy of our 
Founding Fathers. Our collective outrage, and then defiance, toward 
those who would attack our freedom is all the proof we need of the 
continuing strength of the American revolutionary spirit that created 
this great Nation. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made a brief 
address at Gettysburg, PA. He said, in part:

       We are met to dedicate a portion of it [the battlefield] as 
     the final resting place of those

[[Page S4821]]

     who here gave their lives that this Nation might live. It is 
     altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in 
     a larger sense we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we 
     cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, 
     who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor 
     power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long 
     remember, what we say, but it can never forget what they did. 
     It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated to the 
     unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly advanced. It 
     is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
     remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take 
     increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the 
     last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve 
     that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
     nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and 
     that government of the people, by the people, for the 
     people, shall not perish from the earth.

  That spirit lives on, undaunted and undefeated by the events of 
September 11 and unbowed by the continuing threats made against us. A 
civil war could not extinguish it; a war of terror will not break it. 
That strength and that resolve, even in the face of the greatest 
sacrifice, will continue to sustain our Nation. In the effort to avenge 
the deaths of our innocent civilians and to rid the world of Osama bin 
Laden's terrorist network, more American soldiers' lives will be put in 
harms' way and some of our brave sons and daughters will again be 
called upon to give that ``last full measure of devotion'' for their 
country, as Sergeant Vance has been called. That is not a pleasant 
thought, but a true one.
  This war on terror may take our sons and daughters from us, but their 
blood, their sacrifice, will leave a lasting legacy.
  May we, on this Memorial Day, rededicate ourselves to the high and 
noble patriotism for the Nation which they so unstintingly exemplified.
  I yield the floor.