You are chatting comfortably with the man next to you, and then suddenly an enemy soldier throws a grenade. Your brother-in-arms throws himself over the grenade to protect you and the rest of the squad. The explosion fatally wounds him and at same time you feel relief, anger, and sadness. You turn him over to make sure that he is alive, but the last words that he utters in pain are, "Give this letter to my family", as his shaking and bleeding hand takes out a crimson covered letter from his pocket. "Tell them that I love them and I will always will." With these last words his hand drops, his eyes glaze over, and he breaths his final breath. You take the letter and began to sob as you lose a friend who is closer to you than your own brother. At the end of the war, you visit his grave and salute as a sign of respect to a fallen comrade. In that moment of respect, you remember everything the two of you did together, from sharing food in the barracks to sharing ammo in the battlefield. You will never forget the man who sacrificed himself so that a handful of men could live to see another day.
Moments like these are only experienced in war. Battles were fought by men and women bound together by fate, by blood, by duty, and honor. They were bound as one. They were once ordinary people who have achieved the extraordinary. To the people who have been transformed into hardened war veterans, life has a new meaning to them.They fought for their freedom, their families' freedom, and for our freedom.Forgetting the men and women who have risked and lost their lives so that we could live freely is worst form of disrespect President Abraham Lincoln once said "A nation that does not honor its heroes will not stand long." We would not be here today without the bravery of so many veterans. Ignorant people ask veterans if they were trying to be heroes. Veterans might not answer since they know that these people will not understand. People don't ask to be heroes, they just do their job. These men and women have answered the call, the call of duty Our call is to remember and recognize their sacrifice. When we forget our duty, we have turned a blind eye all the blood, sweat, and tears that veterans have given and the soldiers today continue to give. Our duty is to remember.