HILO – Lieutenant Colonel Jacob A. Peterson, Commander of the U.S. Army Garrison-Pohakuloa, gave an emotional keynote address during the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the East Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Hilo.
“Americans in the past kept the day quiet,” Peterson said, “pausing to remember – at least for a little while – the kind of men and women that so willing agave that last full measure.”
“We live in a different time today,” Peterson continued, wiping tears from his eyes, “People have indeed lost something of quality over the years”
We don’t always see that same selfless devotion to something bigger than ourselves. Memorial Day today is more about a day to take advantage of the big sales at the malls or fighting the traffic to get to the beach for a long weekend. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we forget that, as we enjoy the long weekend that we are again at war today, a new generation continues to fight and win against an enemy on our behalf in Afghanistan and other locations around the globe.”Lt. Col. Jacob Peterson
According to organizers:
Peterson began his career in 1991 as an artilleryman in his local Colorado National Guard unit. After an appointment to West Point, he was commissioned in the Infantry in 1996. Prior to assuming command at Pohakuloa, he served as Air and Missile Defense Division chief the U.S. Army Central Command in Leavenworth, Kansas, and worked as Southeast Asia counter-terrorism officer at U.S. Army-Pacific Command on O’ahu.
This year’s Memorial Day Service was sponsored – for first time – by VFW Post 3830 and Ladies Auxiliary at Veterans Cemetery. The public was invited to attend.
I too cry tears for the vets and those fighting today for what is now the US empire. After listening to countless vets who have been abandoned by the US government who have Agent Orange poisoning or Gulf War Syndrome, are missing legs, and deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; it seems if we want to support our troops, let’s keep them out of expansionist wars for resources like oil for multinational corporations.
Peace and freedom cannot be gained by occupational wars, proxy wars, or any other kind of violence in other people’s land. Those people the US government calls terrorists are often regular people who rise up to defend their country from outside invaders using the little means that they have.
The US government was hijacked decades ago by treasonous bankers/federal reserve and by the good oil boys who own/collude with the mainstream media which serves as propaganda mouth piece for their terrorist campaigns while painting the false picture of America, the land of the free. Considering the US has the highest prison population on Earth and vets go to prison at higher rates, the propaganda just doesn’t hold water. Bring the troops home, that is where they want to be.