What a beautiful reminder of the chain of sacrifice that follows every U.S. Soldier into battle. We are quick to recognize the sacrifice of the individuals, but every soldier is a link in a chain of sacrifice that extends before them and behind them. As Senator Dole so eloquently state in his speech at the dedication of the National WWII Memorial;

“As we meet here today, young Americans are risking their lives in liberty’s defense. They are the latest link in a chain of sacrifice older than America itself. After all, if we met the test of our times, it was because we drew inspiration from those who had gone before, including the giants of history who are enshrined on this Mall, from Washington, who fathered America with his sword and ennobled it with his character from Jefferson, whose pen gave eloquent voice to our noblest aspirations from Lincoln, who preserved the Union and struck the chains from our countrymen and from Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over a global coalition to rescue humanity from those who had put the soul itself in bondage. Each of these presidents was a soldier of freedom. And in the defining event of the 20th century, their cause became our cause. On distant fields and fathomless oceans, the skies over half the planet and in 10,000 communities on the home front, we did far more than avenge Pearl Harbor. The citizen soldiers who answered liberty’s call fought not for territory, but for justice, not for plunder, but to liberate enslaved peoples around the world. “

Today I saw an article written on the www.nbcphiladelphia.com web page called “Little Soldier Girl ‘Didn’t Want to Let Go’” which was a heartfelt reminder of the price of our freedom, not just with the lives of the soldiers who carry a weapon, but with the sacrifice of those they leave behind.