Personal sacrifice is necessary to preserve life, liberty, and our way of life for posterity. There are numerous examples of patriots giving there very own lives so that we can live in a country of freedom. A lot of people, however, seem to overlook the sacrifice that multiple people have given for the sake of our freedom. Also, it is overlooked that all of our military and safety services are heroes that don’t wear capes.
In Bill Jenkins speech at the Uniformed Services Appreciation Night, he gave precedents of people that sacrifice things so that we can live and what a real hero is. He gave the example of a law enforcement officer. Lately, officers of the law have been getting a lot of heat for killings of civilians. Some defectors to the force have made an image that all police are out to catch you and that they are something to fear. Before anyone can become an officer they must take an oath of “Service and Protection”. As Bill Jenkins says only a minority in the community really understands what that means.
Police get “the bad guy that had a loaded pistol” or “He stops a drunk driver who in a few moments may have hit you head on.” Jenkins sums it up splendidly by saying, “You will never know about that moment of heroism simply because you are still alive.” He also gave an example of firemen and their sacrifice and heroism. Most citizens picture firemen as individuals who go and put out fires and help with accidents. Many die trapped inside of buildings, they get seriously injured saving lives of people they don’t even know. But firemen are also required to do building inspections to make sure they are safe. That way you can go to school, work, or any other place and not have it collapse on you. Some firemen are don’t do the job to get paid or receive any recognition. They volunteer out of pure adulation for the community.
A strong military is a sovereign blessing in a country. It keeps the nation protected and gives the citizens a sense of security and peace. However, the military is not necessarily family friendly. There are busy schedules, moves and other things that can wreak havoc on a family. Although leaders in the military have implemented programs that are family friendly One thing that chiefly causes division in families is when a spouse or both spouses are deployed. An anonymous poet wrote about the heartache and pride of family members being deployed.
A lot of military children have to deal with not having a mother, father, sibling, or another family member due to deployments. In the poem, there is a child describing what life will be like without their father. “He will be gone so many days but love for him won’t lack. I may be sad, but I am proud; My daddy’s got your back.” In the poem there are similar statements about a son leaving his mother, a husband leaving his wife, and the soldier leaving their country. Family and friends and military service members do not know how they will come back, or if they ever will come back. The members of the military sacrifice personal time with family and self to ensure freedom to the country’s citizens.
There is debatably no other picture that captures American spirit than the flag raising of Iwo Jima. When the United States had the victory at Iwo Jima and raised the flag it showed that 26,000 casualties were not in vain. It showed that the over 6,000 American soldiers who died, their death had not been in vain.