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 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.
Below
is Acting Secretary Mansfield's Veterans Day
message.
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
0urselves, and with all nations.";
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."