A Moving Memorial Day Speech in Afghanistan

A 2019 Memorial Day Speech Given at Bagram Airfield, Parwan Province, Afghanistan
By Bernard I. Untalan (MSgt, First Sergeant, USAF)

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"Brothers and sisters in arms,

I’ve been asked to give a brief reflection for this evening’s occasion of solemn remembrance. My aim is two-fold: to honor the fallen, and to inspire and uplift those of us here today still fighting for the same cause for which they all sacrificed in extremis. Humbled by this opportunity, I also consider it an unfair task as no utterance from even the most silver-tongued of orators can conjure up both remembrance and inspiration as emphatically and eloquently as our day-to-day surroundings here at Bagram Airfield. 

Disney Boulevard. Craig Joint Theater Hospital. Camp Cunningham. Camp Vance. Kohle DFAC. Chapman Hall. Merely to name a few.

Daily we read, daily we hear, daily we utter the names of brave men and women. Brave men and women who made the very same journey to this strange and far-away land that we’ve made ourselves—but did not return. Brave men and women who gazed outward to the same mountains that now envelop us—but found their beauty inadequate, because they pined for a home they would never see again. Brave men and women who, like us, have counted the cost of taking up this fight we now endeavor for ourselves but neither knew the day nor the hour when they would have to pay their share.

To most here, perhaps especially for those of you who are first-time deployers, the names we see engraved upon plaques or painted upon doorways are just that: names and nothing else. But for some of us here today, the names we read, hear, and utter are a trigger switch igniting a memory, a face, a smile, a laugh, a time spent consoling or encouraging, a shared struggle, and even still a common victory.

For the former, I urge you to stop at any of the innumerable memorials where these names are emblazoned, and to read their stories, to remember their stories, and to retell their stories to all who have ears to hear. At the very least, I urge you to think of these family names as exactly that—a family name. And I urge you to remember that these family names will endure in both tragedy and triumph, carried on by the legacy of the bereaved. Perhaps tragically as a surname nearly adopted by a fiancée who waited faithfully for her soldier to return, only to remove her engagement ring from her finger and encase it with a crisply folded American flag. And perhaps triumphantly, as a name announced over a loudspeaker at a college auditorium while a young woman walks across a stage to receive a degree, paid for by an endowment for which she would return every cent —for just one more minute with her dad. Most assuredly, these names will live on as a testament to the price of liberty, the price of peace, and the price of hope for a better future and a better world. Finally, I urge you to utter these names with the reverence they have earned through blood, valor, and the ultimate sacrifice.

In closing, I would like to remind us who has the final say in this ongoing war we seem to endlessly be bringing to a close. Is it the politicians and media pundits? Is it the so-called foreign policy “experts” or the authors of history books? Is it the tyrants of the world or those who seek to enslave and destroy? Not in the very least! God almighty has the final say in this war. For it is He who will truly decide the victor and dispense the true spoils. It is He who will judge with both mercy and justice. And it is His mercy and justice upon which all men must cast their hope.

Ladies and gentlemen, my Catholic faith teaches me that even beyond the veil of death, hope still resides. And it is because of that hope that on this day I pray for the souls of all our fallen brethren memorialized here on this base. Hope in the risen Lord, that sincere and faithful petitions may help guide them into the Kingdom of Heaven.

My friends, let us all hope and let us all pray, if only for the hope of seeing our fallen heroes (some of whom we may be fortunate enough to call friends) once again. And let our beleaguered yet faithful hearts be strengthened, so that we can carry out our mission in the short time that we are here and God willing, return home and live lives worthy of the sacrifices of the brave men and women whose names adorn this last bastion we now defend. Most importantly, let us lead lives worthy of attaining the hope that lives on beyond the fading horizon of our own “threescore and ten”.

Thank you. God bless, and good night, and let us never forget."

‍Bernard is a creative writer with multiple essays, poems, short stories, and screenplays to his credit. He resides in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and daughter where he serves in the military full-time (MSgt, First Sergeant, USAF)