American F-15 Eagle pilots of the 3rd Wing, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska – photo credit Wikipedia

Harry Truman, a veteran of World War I, in a broadcast to the Armed Forces in April of 1945:

“Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices. Because of these sacrifices, the dawn of justice and freedom throughout the world slowly casts its gleam across the horizon.”

For my beloved veteran family members and friends, women and men who have served in every American conflict since the Revolution, in a myriad of ways at home and abroad — to their loved ones who held strong the families, homes, and lives for which they fought — to the highest ideals of our shared country, the preservation and evolution of the real freedoms for which you have all dedicated and given your lives: I am eternally grateful, and I never forget. Thank you for standing for me and my children with what Lincoln so aptly called “the last full measure of devotion.”