[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 90 (Thursday, May 23, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S3864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



              Military Appreciation Month and Memorial Day

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, May is a month dedicated to honoring our 
military. We have Armed Forces Day, which we celebrated this past 
Saturday; Memorial Day, which will be observed on Monday; and the 
entire month is observed as Military Appreciation Month.
  Ronald Reagan is reported to have said:

       Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have 
     ever made a difference in the world. The Marines don't have 
     that problem.

  I would just expand on that a little bit and say that our military 
members don't have to ask that question and don't have that problem. If 
you want to see people living a life of purpose, just look to the men 
and women of the U.S. military--the men and women who get up every day 
ready to defend our freedom, to the point of laying down their lives if 
necessary.
  Many of our military members enter right after high school or 
college. At an age when their counterparts are thinking about 
graduations and internships and taking the first steps toward careers, 
these men and women take a different path. They embrace a life of 
regimentation and rollcalls, of tough physical and mental demands, a 
life that asks them to forgo comfort for sacrifice, up to and including 
the sacrifice of their lives, and they do it willingly.
  Most of us don't often see the sacrifices our military men and women 
make, so it can be easy for us to forget, as we go about our daily 
lives, that those lives are only possible because these men and women 
spend their lives working to defend our country.
  During this Military Appreciation Month, my thoughts turn to those 
South Dakotans serving in our Armed Forces and particularly to the men 
and women of the South Dakota National Guard and our airmen at 
Ellsworth Air Force Base. Our South Dakota military members represent 
the very best of our State, and I am grateful every day for their 
service and sacrifice.
  I am proud to report that the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force 
Base was named the best bomb wing in Air Force Global Strike Command 
during the past year. I am excited that Ellsworth broke ground this 
spring on a new weapons generation facility--part of the construction 
to prepare the base to become the first home of the B-21 Raider.
  I am also proud that the Black Hills region, home to Ellsworth and 
the South Dakota National Guard's Camp Rapid, was named to the 2024 
Class of Great American Defense Communities. South Dakotans know and 
value the sacrifices made by our military men and women, and I am 
tremendously proud of how the Black Hills region has worked to support 
our airmen and National Guard members.
  A discussion of Military Appreciation Month would not be complete 
without mentioning our military families. It is not just our men and 
women in uniform who serve and sacrifice; it is their families as well.
  Life as a military spouse or as a son or daughter of a military 
member is often challenging. There are frequent moves and deployments, 
and most of all, there is the knowledge that one day your husband or 
wife, your mom or your dad could be asked to give up their life for 
their country. So, as we honor our military members this month, it is 
right that we honor and remember the sacrifices of their families as 
well.
  In his 1941 proclamation of Bill of Rights Day, President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt said:

       Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy 
     forget in time that men have died to win them.
       Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy 
     forget in time that men have died to win them.

  As we go about our lives in peace and safety, it can be all too easy 
to forget that that peace and safety have been purchased at a price, 
that they have been purchased with the blood of the men and women who 
have laid down their lives to secure them. On this Monday above all, on 
Memorial Day, we should resolve to remember--to remember and to 
recommit ourselves to living lives worthy of their sacrifice.
  May God take to Himself all those who have fallen in the service of 
our country, and may He comfort their families, and may He bless and 
protect the men and women of the U.S. military. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island.