Memorial Day

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, on the last Monday in May, our Nation sets aside the day to remember, honor, and pay respects to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in our Nation's military. Flags are flown at cemeteries, and families visit the graves and war memorials. They are sharing and reliving memories of the ones we have lost.

This Memorial Day will be different for the family of U.S. Army SGT John O. Herrick. Nearly 80 years ago, Sergeant Herrick was killed off the coast of Normandy, and his body was never identified. The ending to his story was left unwritten until earlier this year, when his family received word that their soldier would soon be coming home 80 years later.

During World War II, Sergeant Herrick was assigned to Company B of the 149th Engineer Combat Battalion in the European theatre. He was on board Landing Craft Infantry 92, alongside 200 other servicemembers on the way to Omaha Beach, when the craft was hit by an underwater mine. Everyone on board was killed.

At the tender age of 19, on June 6, 1944, during the D-day landings, Sergeant Herrick paid the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation's freedom.

Sergeant Herrick--a young boy from a small town, Allen, with a population of about 100--is memorialized on the Normandy American Cemetery's Walls of the Missing. When I was there, I saw his name.

There are many heroes like Sergeant Herrick whose names are only remembered in the hearts of their descendants and etched in stone at places like the Vietnam Memorial wall and the white crosses at Arlington Cemetery.

Remembering and honoring the sacrifice of these heroes is not only the right thing to do, it is really important for our Nation. Hopefully, it pulls us together, not pulls us apart. We must never forget the great cost paid by our servicemembers and their loved ones as they fought fascism in Europe, tyranny in the Pacific, or terrorism in the Middle East. Their sacrifice has protected our freedoms and our Union.

One way the stories of these fallen servicemembers is being preserved is through the Veterans Legacy Program, which works to uncover the stories of fallen servicemembers and make them available to the public. The Veterans Legacy Program provides grants to educational institutions and community organizations to conduct historical research on veterans buried in national cemeteries and to share those veterans' stories through an educational program.

To help further the mission of the Veterans Legacy Program, I introduced, with Senator Mazie Hirono, my colleague from Hawaii, a bill entitled Honoring Veterans' Legacies and Burial Benefits Enhancements Act. This legislation would establish a nonprofit that would be able to accept private donations that would be used to fund the Veterans Legacy Program, operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Furthering the mission of the VLP will help to create and preserve a collection of the stories of our Nation's heroes.

How we memorialize and how we honor our veterans when they have passed sends a message to their families and to our current and future servicemembers that we value the past, the present, and the future sacrifices made by those in military service. Doing so not only honors our fallen servicemembers but encourages another generation of Americans to model their lives after Sergeant Herrick and others who gave their lives in devotion to country.

When Sergeant Herrick is laid to rest later this year on Veterans Day, in Emporia, KS, where Veterans Day was first celebrated, hopefully his life and his story lives on in our hearts and is remembered, retold, and revered on this and every Memorial Day to come.

Mr. President, I will say what I said to my dad when I called him from the World War II Memorial shortly before it was dedicated. I called home to Plainville, KS, to say to my dad:

I am at the World War II Memorial. Dad, I want you to know this memorial--built in your honor--causes me to tell you: Dad, I respect you. I appreciate your service. And, Dad, I love you.

This Memorial Day, I no longer can say that to my dad.

Incidentally, on my way back to the Capitol from that visit, my phone rang. It was my dad.

He said:

Gerald, you left me a message. Could you repeat it? I didn't understand it.

I can't repeat it to my dad any longer--he is no longer living--but we can use this Memorial Day and every other day to say just exactly what I said to my dad then, a World War II veteran:

Dad, and to every servicemember and to every veteran, we respect you, we appreciate your service, and we love you.

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