Sacrifices will never be forgotten

Editor’s note: Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright submitted this Mayor’s Corner column for publication in the May 27 Frontiersman in advance of Memorial Day. It was inadvertently left out of that edition and is printed here in full.

Memorial Day is a time we remember our comrades — both the quick and the dead.

In my very young years, as do many of you, we remember Memorial Day with the services and parades, such as the gatherings that took place all over the United States this week.

Among us observing the ceremonies were the men of World War I, who were no older than many of us today, also World War II veterans and Korean War veterans, parading and honoring the lost alongside their fathers from the First War. Always, there was a car or float with those from the Spanish American War aboard too old to parade any longer.

All from that and World War I are gone now. So many conflicts have occurred since then — The Cold War, Vietnam, Gulf I and II, Panama, Libya, Grenada and now Afghanistan.

Our struggles as a nation go on and will continue in order to keep the light of liberty and freedom alive and ensure that our Constitution and Bill of Rights remain our guiding principles. The rights to worship, speak, publish and be free from tyrannical government are all things we hold dear. More than 1.5 million American lives have been lost for this cause. It is they that we remember.

In American tradition it was taught God-Family-Country.

On Memorial Day, many services eulogized our comrades, lost friends and our true heroes, but the words quickly pass on the wind. You who remember them are the eulogy through your witness, your thoughts and your prayers.

Keep those who are lost in your hearts. God gave us these heroes and has taken many home. They became our family, and they sacrificed so much for our country (God-Family-Country).

There was a hymn written by Randall Wallace and sung in the movie “We Were Soldiers Once” and played at President Reagan’s funeral, who was a World War II veteran.

To fallen soldiers let us sing,

Where no rockets fly, no bullets wing,

Our Broken Brothers let us bring

To the Mansions of the Lord.

No more weeping,

No more fight,

No friends bleeding through the night,

Just Devine embrace,

Eternal light,

In the Mansions of the Lord.

Where no mothers cry,

And no children weep,

We shall stand and guard,

Though the Angels sleep,

Oh, through the ages let us keep

The Mansions of the Lord.

At this time and for every Memorial Day observance, keep those who gave their last full measure in the cause upon your hearts. God bless you, and God bless America.

Verne E. Rupright has been Wasilla mayor since 2008.