Service. Sacrifice. Honor.

   On Monday, all across this country, Americans will take a moment to remember those who have done so much to allow our freedoms. On this day, we'll spend time with our families, join our communities in celebration and take time to remember what sometimes we all take so for granted in our everyday American lives.

   But each and every day, those who wear the uniform stand for their brothers and sisters who have given everything.

   In Washington's Arlington National Cemetery, twenty four hours a day, three hundred sixty five days a year, through the most torrential rains and stifling summer heat, a sentry from the elite thirty man unit of the United States Honor Guard paces twenty one steps, pauses twenty one seconds, turns, and paces twenty one steps in return, guarding the final resting place of men whose names and hometowns we do not know. A place that will never be attacked; a place with no declared enemy.

   In Oregon's Willamette National Cemetery, at the end of each day, the Honor Guard gives full military honors to veterans who have no family or friends able to attend a funeral. The 15:01 service.

   They do this in the highest traditions of our United States Armed Forces. They do this because these are their brothers and sisters; our brothers and sisters; our families. They do this because no one that has made the ultimate sacrifice for our country will ever be forgotten. And we will not forget what they have done, what they are doing, and what they continue to do for the honor of the United States of America.

   We can do a small part to honor those who serve and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by contributing to The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (www.fallenheroesfund.org). From 2000 to 2005 the Fund provided close to $20 million to families of United States military personnel lost in performance of their duty, mostly in service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Fund provided unrestricted grants of $11,000 to each spouse and $5,000 to each dependent child; and $1,000 to parents of unmarried servicemembers. The payments were coordinated with the casualty offices of the Armed Forces, to ensure all families received these benefits. With that mission therefore accomplished, the Fund redirected its support toward the severely injured. Your contributions to The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund means so much for the families of fallen heroes.

". . . It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
-- Abraham Lincoln The Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania