Why do we serve? It’s a simple truth

By Gabe Haugland

----

Editor's note: Following are excerpts from Gabe Haugland's remarks delivered during today's Memorial Day Service in Clear Lake.

Last year, I spoke here in this same cemetery as I was still mourning the loss of SGT Brent Maher of Honey Creek, Iowa, who I served with in Afghanistan. I still miss him just as much today, and I can hardly imagine the pain his wife and children are experiencing today as they remember him too.

We also remember the sacrifice of a local hero, Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson, of Rockford, who was one of 22 special operators who died when a Taliban RPG hit their Chinook helicopter on Aug. 6 of last year.

In total, there have been 110 U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq since the first of this year alone. I thought it would be appropriate for us to recall exactly what it is that they have sacrificed their lives for.

Our Founders believed that our Creator had endowed us with certain inalienable rights that could not be surrendered to the state because they created by God - the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our fallen have died to secure those rights.

Our Founders also recognized a few other rights they determined indispensable to our Republic:

1. Freedom of speech, press, religion and petition

2. The right to keep and bear arms

3. Conditions for quarters of soldiers

4. The right to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure

5. The right to due process and the prevention of unjust government takings

6. The right to a speedy trial

7. The right to a trial by jury

8. Freedom from excessive bail and cruel punishment

9. The protection of other rights not listed in the Constitution

10. States' rights, or the principle of federalism

We know these rights collectively as the “Bill of Rights.”

But what is a soldier's role in defending, protecting and preserving these rights?

Perhaps a Union soldier during the Civil War would've told you he was defending the right of the slave to be free - the right to liberty.

Perhaps an American soldier during World War II would've told you he was fighting to defend our very homeland after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Perhaps an American soldier during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts would've told you he was defending our way of life against the spread of communism, a system that killed 85 million to 100 million people during the 20th century alone.

Perhaps an American soldier during Desert Storm would've told you he was fighting to prevent further use of chemical weapons and poison gas, which Saddam employed against the Kurdish people in the Halabja prison massacre on March 16, 1988.

Perhaps an American soldier during the Global War on Terror would tell you he was fighting to prevent the spread of radical Islam, a system which strips women of their rights and treats them as property; that allows for honor killings and public stonings for women who have dishonored their families.

I know from my own experience in Afghanistan that we were fighting not only to exact revenge against the Taliban and al-Qaida for 9/11 and prevent an attack like the from ever happening again, but for the little girls who were being poisoned by the Taliban for trying to go to school.

And of course, as every soldier will tell you, he was fighting to protect his buddies.

Today we are grateful for every American soldier who has given his or her life in defense of their country and these grand ideals, which have secured our place as the longest-standing form of government in recorded human history.

Today we are grateful for their families, who have born the sacrifice of war and loss.

But today we are also hopeful for a new generation of warrior-statesmen, who will again rise up to meet the challenges of the 21st century and the bad actors sure to challenge these ideals again soon, just as their forefathers have done since 1775.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.

Gabe Haugland, formerly from the Cedar Rapids area, resides in Clear Lake with his family. He served in Afghanistan in 2011, and now serves in the Iowa National Guard. Comments: gabe.haugland@gmail.com)