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The faithful gathered, the wreath was laid at the foot of a recently dedicated grave, taps were played and words were spoken.

The cool, clear air on Monday morning surrounded those who walked the Veteran’s Way path at Hamblen Memory Gardens to stand in quiet, respectful reflection as Gen. Arnold ‘Arnie’ Bunch gave a speech that categorically underscored the reason for the national holiday.

“When talking about Memorial Day, Tamra Bolton said, ‘Today is not a day of celebration. It is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of freedom,’” Bunch said.

“Today we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation and the freedoms that we enjoy and unfortunately today often forget or take for granted.

“America has long served as a beacon of hope for freedom around the world. Our Constitutions provides freedoms: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to gather, and more more, that most people around the world only dream of.

“Service members have long carried that beacon of hope around the world through their service – as many of you have – and in some cases, sacrifices of their lives.

“Franklin Roosevelt said, ‘Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men died to win them.’ The forgetting he mentions is regrettable. As I grew up, I never fully appreciated the significance of Memorial Day or as it was originally called, Decoration Day. It wasn’t the fault of my mom and dad, they did their best to try to educate me; it was just that I didn’t really fully grasp and understand the meaning and the significance of Memorial Day. I, like most, interpreted Memorial Day as the start of summer, a time to be out of school, a weekend for picnics and gatherings and maybe a vacation. We, our family, had not suffered that loss of a loved one while serving our nation.

“As I went through the United States Air Force Academy and served on active duty, my appreciation of the importance and significance of Memorial Day greatly increased. I began to understand the number of service members who perished while serving the nation – some of whom, in Carolyn’s and my case, were actual friends who we served with or who served under us – and hearing the stories of our service members’ bravery.

Bunch shared the story of a service member, an Air Force Academy graduate, who was shot down over Vietnam. He was badly injured, was captured, was beaten and tortured, escaped, was re-captured, was beaten and tortured and then eventually died in a Prisoner of War camp.

“He did all of these things protecting freedom far from the United States of America so that we could rest easy,” Bunch said. “This is but one of the many stories that I could tell of bravery. As I read and learned, I started seeing and appreciating the bigger picture of the price so many have paid so we remain free.

“During World War II, the American air strategy called for high altitude bombing campaigns. It was not uncommon to launch hundreds of bombers and lose hundreds of air crew in a single day of raids. But the airmen, despite losing their comrades in arms, kept flying. Why did they keep flying? They each had a mission, and executing those missions was important to stop the spread of evil, of Nazi Germany and the Japanese forces at that time and to protect the freedoms that we hold dear.

“Roughly 50 years later, the loss predictions for the air attack night one of the Gulf War were particularly high, specifically in some of the platforms that I’ve flown and am very familiar with. Yet despite those staggering predicted numbers, young men and women got into their flying machines and executed the orders of their commanders. While the loss predictions were not realized, these young men and women exemplified what is different about American service members and matched what history has shown: in the face of danger, American service members act bravely to protect freedom regardless of where it may be.

“During times of conflict following the Civil War, we have lost more than 623,000 service members. Many of them were not Medal of Honor winners, but their sacrifices are equally important. They represent what America stands for, as they were America’s most valued treasure, America’s sons and daughters who went to war and placed themselves in harm’s way to protect freedom and the rights established in our Constitution.

“While we have lost a lot of service members in combat, we have also lost many others in training, test execution and exercises, today we have the greatest military the world has ever seen. We have been in this position for a number of years. We have the most capable military because of the way we operate each and every day during times of peace. How we operate, train, exercise and test every day ensures that we are always ready to answer the Nation’s call.

“This readiness, through the most realistic training possible – which sometimes realism costs lives – provides us a strong deterrent posture and helps ensure any nation who believes they want to take on the United States pauses, reflects and hopefully says ‘Today is not the day. It’s not worth the cost that we will have to pay.’

“These efforts of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and Guardmen today save us countless other lives and spilled blood and protect our freedom.

“It is all of these brave men and women who have died in times of peace and war to protect our freedoms that we honor and remember today.”

“Ronald Reagan said, ‘If words cannot repay the debt we owe these men and women, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them, and with the vision that led them to battle and to finely sacrifice.’”

“Today, we and all those who understand the sacrifices made must remind people why we should reflect on this special day. According to Gen. Paul Silva, when he served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, less than one percent of our citizens will wear the uniform today. That really means the number of families who have members in the Armed Forces and the number of Americans across all works of life who can relate to military service and sacrifice is decreasing.

“It has been a long time since we had a draft or a world crisis that caused young men to line up and volunteer in the hundreds of thousands.

This makes the importance of educating our citizens, particularly our youth, on how we have been able to keep our nation’s freedoms so much more important. We have never had a generation who has not had to face periods of conflict and protect the nation. We must prepare our citizens to anwer the call in our time of need.”

Bunch rounded out his speech by recounting a portion of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

“But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

“The world will little note nor long remember what we say here. But it can never forget what they did here. 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 for us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the 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.”

Bunch said to the crowd, “I ask that we all re-commit to keep the memory of those men and women who have died in the service of our great nation and their sacrifice alive and they we all pass on to the next generations the understanding that freedom is not free.

“As Thomas Campbell said, ‘The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree.’”

Prior to his speech, Bunch welcomed all the veterans in attendance and thanked them for their service.

“Although today isn’t Veteran’s Day, and today’s not necessarily just about vetarans, veterans understand more than most others the sacrifice by those who paid the ultimate cost protecting our freedoms.

“It’s an honor to have served, for you all to have set the path that we ended up building on to be the military we are today,” he said.

“Last and most importantly, I want to welcome any family members who have lost loved ones while they were serving our nation. There are no words that I can provide that will east the pain that you have experienced, and still experience, or fill the void because of the loss of your loved ones. But I hope my words today honor your family members for their service and their sacrifice.”

Larry McGinnis, who stood quietly among the faithful, said after the service, “It’s time to remember, to remember the friends that I lost, and what they paid for, and my family members before me. We can’t ever forget. If we forget, we’re in trouble.”

Bunch was approached about six weeks prior to the service to serve as the keynote speaker.

“I was honored to be able to do it today. This is so important that we have people remember that we’ve had people sacrificed their lives for freedoms that we take for granted,” he said.

This was the first service at the Veteran’s Memorial held since Covid.

“It’s very important. I didn’t serve, but I had a lot of family members who did,” State Rep. Rick Eldridge said. “My brother was career military. I had uncles who served in Vietnam. I think it’s very important that we honor and recognize our veterans, the ones that are here and the ones that have gone on.”