In honoring veterans of past wars, it's also important for Americans to remember the future veterans who are serving in Iraq and across the globe, the adjutant general of the Mississippi Army National Guard said Tuesday.
"As we talk today, we're creating more and more combat veterans," Major Gen. James H. Lipscomb III said during a Veterans Day celebration at the Greenwood Veterans Memorial.
And more appear to be on the way. Orders went out over the weekend for 43,000 additional U.S. Army and Air National Guard troops, 500 of them from Mississippi, to mobilize for possible deployment to Iraq. There are currently 2,000 soldiers from the Mississippi National Guard serving in the U.S. occupation.
Altogether, the number of National Guard soldiers there is the largest since the Korean War, Lipscomb said. The increase in active National Guard troops indicates an elevation in military activity responding to a changing world, he explained.
"What we've seen over the last 26 months is a different kind of conflict for our country," said Lipscomb, who grew up and enlisted in the guard in Greenwood. "We've had to call on our guard and reserves like never before to protect our freedoms in winning this war."
Before Lipscomb's address, a patriotic program of events paid tribute to those and other soldiers, past and present. The 41st Army Band from Jackson packed into the veterans gazebo and played big band music. The Greenwood Police Department's color guard and a team of former and current soldiers presented the American flag and various military colors. A number of elected officials spoke about the debt Americans owe to their veterans.
Among the speakers was retired Brig. Gen. Charles Burnham, who is the state's executive director of Veterans Affairs. He called veterans "the best people our society has to offer. We owe them all our full support and our sincerest thanks," he said.
The music was what brought Beacher King out. King, 80, who served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Europe in World War II, said "Taps" in particular takes him back to his war days.
"I like to come out here and reminisce," he said. "That music brings back memories, and 'Taps' will make you cry. When they play 'Taps,' it just does something to your heart. You heard it even in basic training when you were going to bed at night, and you always remember that.
"I just think about all those we left behind."
King said again and again that the real heroes were those who never came back from war. Lipscomb heard another veteran say the same thing, but there are other heroes too, the general made clear.
"Every one of you veterans of any conflict are heroes," he said. "Yes, we have many fallen veterans, but as we speak today, we have over nine million veterans in the country, and this is their day."
Lipscomb took time to remember Col. James B. Chance, who was killed last week in Iraq when his vehicle drove over an explosive device. Chance was the first member of the Mississippi National guard to be killed in action. His death raises the toll of U.S. troops to 396, and 153 since President Bush declared an end to hostilities May 1.
"We see everyday what a conflict it is," said Lipscomb.
As the band played on, moving into "Taps" after Lipscomb's tribute, King's reaction was no different than usual. He didn't try to fight back the tears.
"There's just something about those notes that bring tears to your eyes," he said.
