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November 7, 2007
“Veterans Pride Initiative” Shows
Support for Service Members
WASHINGTON – For
veterans to show their support of the U.S. military, especially for the
men and women serving overseas in the Global War on Terrorism, Acting
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon H. Mansfield called on the nation’s
24 million veterans to wear their military decorations on Veterans
Day.
"By wearing our decorations, we show the world
the unity of our support for the U.S. armed forces and our pride in
the men and women serving today on the frontlines of freedom,” said
Mansfield, a decorated and wounded combat veteran of the Vietnam War. “We
also teach the meaning and the value of military service to the children
of America.”
Former Secretary Jim Nicholson, launched the "Veterans
Pride Initiative” a year ago, urging veterans to pin on their
decorations for Veterans Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and
other patriotic holidays and events.
Additional information about the initiative
can be found at VA's Web site at http://www.va.gov/veteranspride. The
site includes information about how veterans can replace lost medals
or confirm the decorations to which they are entitled.
Mansfield is scheduled to take part in the national
observance of Veterans Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington
National Cemetery on Sunday, Nov. 11. Most of the 125 national
cemeteries operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and many
of the Department’s 153 hospitals will be holding their own observances.
Originally conceived to mark the end of World
War I in 1918 – when an armistice for “the war to end all
wars” began on the 11th hour of the 11th day
of the 11th month – Veterans Day now honors the service
of everyone who served in the U.S. military.
A Veterans Day Message
From the Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Gordon H. Mansfield
On this Veterans Day 2007, we come
together as a Nation to thank our veterans for their service and to
let them know that their service and sacrifices will never be taken
for granted.
Americans are blessed to live in a Nation of
democracy and freedom. For these blessings we thank our veterans. Here
and in communities across this great country, we honor veterans for
protecting and securing democracy and freedom throughout our history.
Veterans are everyday men and women we know
as friends, neighbors, relatives and colleagues who have served our
Nation in extraordinary ways. They have preserved and strengthened
our country and made sacrifices beyond duty’s call. Even
as we honor them this Veterans Day, their successors are courageously
defending our freedoms at home and abroad. Veterans and their
families are truly among our finest citizens.
At the Department of Veterans Affairs, we are
proud to fulfill the solemn pledge of President Abraham Lincoln, who
during his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, set forth our
obligation to care for those injured in body and spirit in their defense
of our Nation and for the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The
VA and the over quarter-million men and women serving in it give daily
endorsement of President Lincoln’s commitment, and do so in a
spirit of compassion, respect, sensitivity and gratitude. Let
us today, therefore, remember Lincoln’s charge to us:
“With malice toward none; with charity
for all; with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to
do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace,
among ourselves, and with all nations.”
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