Today my Battalion gathered for a memorial service to honor one of our own. SGT Andy Morales, a truck commander from the 196th "Blue Devils" died at Camp Liberty, Baghdad on September 22, 2011. He was a prior-service Marine and a dedicated Army NCO who lived the Army Values. He is survived by his wife and children. It was my honor and privilege to serve as his Battalion Commander. These are the words I shared at the memorial today as we held final roll call for one of our Warriors.
"Today we gather to honor the life and service of one of our own - SGT Andy
Morales. In preparing my remarks, I was gripped by a lot of emotions. I felt
shock that such a bright and energetic young man could pass from us this
quickly. I felt sadness. Sadness for his friends, sadness for his section
and most importantly, sadness for his wife, his children and his mother.
What I want to talk about, what I want to tell SGT Morales's family, his
friends, and his unit-is Thank you. Thank you for serving. Thank you for
serving your nation and your countrymen. Thank you for serving the Soldiers
and Transporters of the 196th "Blue Devils".
Last week the newspaper carried a little reported statistic. It said that
95% of Americans under the age of 65 have never served in the Armed Forces,
in any capacity.95%. That makes SGT Morales extremely special in my book.
That fact makes all of you special. He served and you serve so the country
can sleep-safely, peacefully. Thank you SGT Morales.
In May of 1962, General Douglas MacArthur delivered his last speech-this one
to the Corps of Cadets at West Point. Now the speech is superb in its
entirety - in my opinion one of the greatest speeches ever made - and is
most famous for its theme, "Duty, Honor, Country." I'm partial, however to
an often overlooked portion of the speech, near the end, in which the old
soldier talks to the importance of our calling, of SGT Morales's chosen
profession.
"And through all this
welter of change and development, your mission remains
fixed, determined, inviolable-it is to win our wars. Everything else in your
professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other
public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or
small, will find others for their accomplishments, but you are the ones who
are trained to fight, yours is the profession of arms-the will to win the
sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you
lose, the nation will be destroyed.
This does not mean that you are war mongers. On the contrary, the soldier,
above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the
deepest wounds and scars of war."
Thank you SGT Morales, for your 9 and a half years of service to this great
nation.
The military is a family. Its bloodline is as old and honorable as
the republic itself. Its ancestors are its heroes. Recruits are told that to
wear the uniform is to inherit this great lineage. In every sense, it is a
brotherhood bought in blood, and surrounded by the greatest mystery of
all-why men fight. For under fire, men are not moved by the call of country
or the rhetoric of a cause. They fight for their comrades. This was the real
lesson of Yorktown, Gettysburg, Bastogne, Pusan, Ia Drang, and every other
battle our Nation has fought on every corner of the globe. Soldiers shared
rations, slept under the same wet ponchos, marched for months at each
other's side, or convoyed for countless hours on hot and dusty roads wrought
with Improvised Explosive Devices. Soldiers stand together as a team to face
these adversities without complaint. Under the harsh realities of combat it
does not take long for strangers to turn into comrades or for two men,
finding in one another a vein of humor or decency or raw courage-some moral
hand hold, to steady themselves on the uncertain field of battle.
Thank you SGT Morales. You are both a Marine and an Army NCO who not
only served your country, you served and tended to your fellow Marines and
Soldiers, your comrades-so we can carry out the nation's business. You
willingly chose the vocation of taking care of Soldiers - the profession of
arms. Thank you.
I'd saved this quote years ago, author unknown. I think it was from
an e-mail. One of those short verses passed around-more often by Soldier's
wives-which tells each other why we do it and "is it worth it?" A small bit
of thanks and subtle heroism. Likewise it also captures the sacrifice and
the unselfishness in our calling. It reads as follows:
"It is the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the
press. 
It is the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to
demonstrate.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and
whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the
flag.
It is the Soldier. It has always been the Soldier."
SGT Andy Morales - Soldier and Marine. Semper Fidelis! Mission First,
Soldiers Always"
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