 cannot encompass spirit nor can memory truly be frozen in the shrines that many wrecked but in granite and marble in fieldstone and clay and bronze we symbolize our desire to preserve what is enduringly valuable in our lives and in our honored history to remind ourselves of what men have been willing to do and be and give for liberty the American soldier is so honored and always has been in this tomb at Arlington lie the bodies of the unknowns of World War one World War two and Korea symbols of all the heroes who fell in the wars of the nation's maturity their memory and the memory of all their brothers in arms before them are enshrined in a chain of tribute which stretches back across the developing story of the United States back to the beginning of the nation and of the army which has fought to preserve it these were the first the embattled farmers as the poet Emerson called them at Concord Bridge they fired the shot heard around the world they began their adventure as a group of individuals united at first only by something intangible in the emerging American spirit a sense of the importance of independence a belief that a man should have something to say about his own affairs the Continental Congress gave their struggle a direction that was breathtaking in its audacity and sweeping in its vision of man's rights not mere rebellion the creation of a new and uniquely free nation destiny provided a leader to match the peril and need of the time and under him through eight years haunted with incredible hardship were shaped the victories of Trenton and Saratoga and finally of Yorktown the dream of American liberty at last took life a constitutional bedrock of political morality and religious freedom gave the stream of base and anchor for the soaring aspirations of generations to come the acquisition of vast new lands through the Louisiana purchase provided room for a period of vigorous growth the people use the peaceful years to settle new territories before the nation was 30 years old war came again the war of 1812 in this conflict with the British the central issue was the rights of American semen and the war was primarily a naval one the battle of New Orleans was the only important action by ground forces in this war and it was actually fought after the war was officially over here the army learned more about military tactics the nation learned something about its need for a professional army to stand ready against attack and the attacking forces learn the folly of underestimating the stubborn resourcefulness of men defending their freedom now they're followed nearly half a century of expansion as the nation's frontier was pushed ever farther and farther westward in retrospect the simple confidence of those pioneers in the face of the hardships uncertainties and dangers which lay before them is amazing and their achievement a lasting and inspiring heritage Americans had begun the work of making a continental United States a reality now Texas wrote a preface to the next chapter in America's history and a mission compound whose name might otherwise have become merely an obscure historical footnote became a synonym for endurance and heroism this was the Alamo Texas won its independence after a long and bloody struggle during which a band of 187 Americans met death and one enduring fame at the Alamo the frontiers expanded and the flow of the nation's commerce grew the midpoint of the 19th century was reached and passed in peace but as the late 1850s approached a storm of violent opinion was building which would threaten the very unity of the nation the most tragic of all wars that have brother against brother was forced upon the nation soldiers of both sides went into battle secure in the belief in their cause the Confederate soldier had behind him the unified effort of a culture that was actually a way of life he also had a superb military organization perhaps more than these he had a hot defiant pride a formidable confidence that he would win he fought with a magnificence that did him high credit and in the end it was not his spirit or skill but his resources that failed him the Union Army suffered at first from over confidence and a lack of unity but in the refining fire of combat these were done away and by mid-war the Union soldier emerged as one of the most defective fighters in military history this war was many things it was the first modern war in terms of weaponry transport technology it was a war of spectacular plans brilliant in their execution its campaigns still provide lessons for students of tactics in human terms the war was a national tragedy viewed historically it preserved the nation today a battlefield like Gettysburg becomes a many-acre national shrine where silence and memory command the ground so torn by the fury of shot and shell a century ago we're living men fought and suffered bronze and stone now stand sentinels of a nation's conscience telling over and over for every succeeding age how dearly bought is the unity which makes this nation one and indivisible and at Arlington they memorial to the Civil War dead expresses what might be said of all American soldiers of every war not for fame or reward not for place or rank not lured by ambition or goaded by necessity but in simple obedience to duty as they understood it these men suffered all sacrificed all dared all and died America's advancement once again made secure through the courage and sacrifice of her fighting men stretched into the West and into the future with limitless promise the two great oceans were to be the continent was to become one great nation in geographical as well as philosophical fact the great reach westward was met by the West reaching eastward August did not however go unopposed the Indian who had resisted the settlement of the new continent from the beginning had grown bold and powerful while the nation was absorbed in its struggles for the union to the soldier felt the task of bringing safety to the great West it was a harsh assignment the army's Western forces totaled only some 10,000 men scattered widely across the vast plains this 10,000 faced an enemy which numbered 250,000 he did more than his duty wrote one army general of this soldier of the West he did more than his duty and in the doing he wrote a page of history which will be read and thrilled to so long as men prize courage much of the time as always the soldier's duty was carried out unheralded in tedium hardship and isolation unrelieved by the excitement of combat action under vast skies he did a vast job by the end of the 19th century the West and the internal security of the entire country were stabilized from ocean to ocean the American nation stretched strong and free but just beyond the nation's borders new fires were kindling in the summer of 1898 the USS Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor now the American soldier fought to help Cuba gain her independence from Spain and again he prevailed the beginning of the new century brought rumblings of a much greater challenge and much farther from our shores America hoped to remain uninvolved but that was not to be the doboy went into his first European combat experience full of confidence and idealism he was determined to save the world for democracy it was an agonizing war of stalemate and negligible gains of ground bitterly fought for a war of trenches and barbed wire cutting across the heart of France new weapons brought to the battlefield a deadliness never known before he fought well through the Holocaust of Cantignier Chateau Thierry, Mellowwood, the Marne, the Argonne Forest steadily stubbornly he made his way across the torn and bloody ground earned the tide of battle the price he willingly paid won him victory and an immortal place in the memory of generations of soldiers yet to come now came years of burgeoning industrial power of swift development spurred at first by the belief that the war just ended had in fact ended all war within two decades however this industrial might would be desperately needed by the late 1930s America could not mistake the shape of things to come knowing time might be short the nation began to mobilize around a small nucleus of trained professionals a mighty fighting force had to be built a force that would use combat skills that were new and untried in battle so far as American troops were concerned the enemy had shown the effectiveness of such modern skills all too clearly in Europe by December of 1941 all time for preparation had to run out with what there was left of what she had ready America fought back for some whose stubborn resistance had bought priceless time for their country the months ahead in captivity would sorely test their fortitude their moral stamina and their faith in the ultimate victory of their free nation history would record that they had that fortitude that stamina and faith and that their faith was justified history would record to how their comrades in arms devised and put into practice techniques of assault that had not been in the book until the necessities of a global purpose called forth the needed answers the massed amphibious assault first perfected in the pacific and in Italy would be put to use later in the greatest landing ever attempted in the history of man d-day the 6th of june 1944 the task which had been set for them came perilously close to being impossible somehow they accomplished it they established a massive beachhead and turned their faces and their weapons inward upon the enemy's heartland sometimes slowly foot by foot sometimes swiftly mile on mile they pressed forward with the total force of america's now hugely expanded productive capacity behind them finally it became manifest that nothing was going to stop them there came a time at last when the inevitability of the war's outcome became clear even to the determined and resourceful enemy america's industrial might her capacity for production were still growing the enemies was growing less with every passing day now the long and bitter time of fighting in europe was over and all attention turned to the pacific intensified effort from the air reflected our wish to avoid the cruely costly prospect of a land invasion of japan a new era began the morning a single bomber instead of the usual hundreds delivered an ultimatum on board the battleship missouri general douglas macArthur accepted the surrender world war two was at an end hundreds of thousands came home a great many others did not and on far beaches lay rusting reminders of flame and bitter violence time and the sea would erase them but the nation's debt to the men who brought them there would remain the growing complexity of warfare brought changes in the army the variety of skills and specialties needed to support its overall mission grew and its men kept pace with this dramatic growth the days when a soldier needed only to keep his eyes and ears open his mouth shut and his rifle clean were long and permanently gone never the less the prime mission of the soldier to be ready to deliver swift and effective force against any threat to his nation's security remain and his readiness to meet any new challenge was kept short in june of 1950 from among the beautiful peaks and valleys of korea the new challenge came and the response was unequivocal at the start there were not enough of them a familiar situation but they used what they had to good effect they kept victory beyond the grasp of the aggressors while reinforcements rally in the united states the citizen as always came through by the tens of thousands he shouldered the responsibility for doing his part in maintaining the freedom he'd been born into he did himself and the nation proud service when the need arose he learned what he had to learn he mastered the bewildering swiftness of the change from civilian to soldier he gained the pride that comes to a group of individuals when through hard work they become an effective smoothly coordinated team in korea after a year of swift seesaw movement the fighting settled into a stalemate constant patrolling endless fighting over the same bits of battered earth these taxed the soldier's endurance still he kept at his job to convince the enemy that he could not win in the end he made his point that armed aggression against free men would be met and thwarted wherever and whenever it might appear by the late 1950s the soldier's training was more widely varied than ever before in history he learned to be at home in the steaming jungle he mastered the equipment the tactics the specialized techniques required for combat in the arctic snow he swallowed the dust and endured the heat of desert operations where the temperature was 115 in the shade and there was no shade he worked with weapons which were ever more powerful more complex more varied and effective his firepower had become impressive indeed today there are new challenges to be faced since the time of the minute men at concord bridge much has changed the tools the technology the mobility and firepower wielded by the soldier of today would seem fantastic to men who went into battle armed only with flintlocks and a stubborn dream much has changed but much remains the same flintlocks have become museum pieces but the dream of the men who bore them still animates their counterparts in the 20th century the times have changed the determination of free men to remain free has not today as in the beginning the high intent of a nation depends for its chance of fulfillment upon the man who is ready to give whatever may be needed the soldier he is worthy today as then of the grateful tribute of his people because he is today as then ready ready to redeem in full measure the pledge which echoes and re echoes throughout the soldier's heritage for freedom our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor