Always Faithful

Semper fidelis – always faithful. That’s the motto of the United States Marine Corp, not to mention the Royal Navy ship HMS Exeter and the Plymouth Argyle Football Club. But today I want to appropriate that motto and apply it to a very special group of people in our country – the spouses of the members of our Armed Forces. They are the epitome of what it means to be always faithful.

Since the shot heard round the world, American women have been running homes, raising families, supplementing incomes, supporting war-related fundraising, conducting blood drives, staying involved in morale boosting activities, and providing emotional support to their husbands when deployed away from home. In the modern military, husbands have stepped into that role as their wives serve the country with honor, courage and commitment. The sacrifice these military spouses make is never more apparent and significant that when their soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen are in combat or any other form of harm’s way. Now is such a time.

I watched my daughter-in-law assume this role of honor when she married my son while he was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. She was born and raised in North Carolina, but before long she left her home and family of origin and followed her husband first to Charleston and then across the country to San Diego and Camp Pendleton. Then, on February 19, 2004, she watched him get onboard a bus at Camp Pendleton for the first leg of his deployment to Fallujah. Watching the two of them at that moment is one of the most poignant scenes I've ever witnessed.

When my son was wounded he was flown first to the Army medical center in Landstuhl, Germany, and then to Bethesda Naval Hospital for a brief two-day stay before the decision was made to send him home to be treated at the Naval Hospital in San Diego. By this time, my daughter-in-law’s need to see my son was so great that she drove (accompanied by my son's mom) from San Diego to Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco where he was making a one-night stop. She was determined that her husband was not going to land in the state of California without her being there to greet him, and she was. They visited for a few hours and then she got in the car and without sleep headed back home while my son was being flown there a short time later. They arrived in San Diego at roughly the same time.

A lot of spouses, military or otherwise, would have done something similar. But a military spouse in wartime lives with a constant reality that spans between a ceremonial welcome home parade on Main Street and a solemn burial with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Furthermore, when a military spouse enters a hospital room to see her returning husband or wife for the first time, s/he has to be prepared to see, and then live with, another reality – combat wounds that can range from those that can be suffered in any vehicle or industrial accident to the horrific wounds that can only be suffered in modern warfare. Sometimes these brave men and women who wait are called upon to exhibit far greater courage when their loved ones return than they were asked to exhibit while their warriors were in combat.

I believe it would be altogether fitting and proper that we select a small, somewhat secluded plot of land on the National Mall in Washington, DC and build a modest monument to the sacrifice of military spouses and their unique form of service to country. I say modest and secluded not because they don’t merit something large and in the center of things, but because it would represent the quiet, almost secluded modesty with which they offer their service and sacrifice. This monument could be similar to the modest and somewhat secluded memorial erected near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to honor the women who served as combat nurses in Vietnam.

I know of no group of Americans who are more deserving of honor and have been more constant in their devotion to duty for 230 years than these women and men. I salute them.

Semper Fi