Speeches

Veteran's Day 2007

DCM Richard K. Pruett

November 12, 2007

Good morning. Thank you for coming.

I’d especially like to recognize the President of the Federated States of Micronesia, His Excellency Manny Mori…

…their Excellencies Ambassador Miriam Hughes and Ambassador Susan Cox, representing the United States and Australia, respectively…

…Micronesia’s Assistant Secretary for American and European Affairs, the Honorable Jane Chigiyal…

…other members of the diplomatic corps…

…reverend clergy…

…honored guests – most particularly our veterans…

…ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

When the guns of August 1914 finally fell silent at 11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, it was the cessation of fighting in what was then billed “The War to End All Wars.”

We commemorate that armistice on what we now call “Veteran’s Day.”

It still falls on November 11th.

We’re not late in our commemoration -- today is still November 11th in much of the world.

It was supposed to be “The War to End All Wars,” but in some ways, World War One never really ended.

The world is still reverberating from the shockwaves of that event.

We’re still trying to come to terms with its legacy, whether it is the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East or the Japanese takeover of the Caroline Islands.

Diplomats and statesmen strive to avert violence while defending national interests, but we do not always succeed.

It is our veterans who have been, and remain, the final guarantor of our freedoms.

We can take pride in the fact that Micronesian men and women now serve side by side Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Because of their sacrifices in our collective behalf, the United States and the Federated States of Micronesia now share a consanguinity of blood shed together on the battlefield.

This is a sacred thing.

We have not yet won the true peace we seek, but the example of our veterans needs to be studied and remembered and honored and, indeed, emulated…

…if true peace is ever to begin.