'Because We Strive For Peace, We Must Prepare For War': Pete Hegseth Delivers Memorial Day Address

Forbes Breaking News

Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth delivers Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery.

Transcript

00:00Roxxon, President Trump, Vice President Vance, Chairman Cain, Gold Star families,

00:24Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today to remember our fallen warriors.

00:31We gather here to honor our very best, gone in their youth.

00:37To properly do so, we understand who they are and what they fought for.

00:43It is our simple duty to them.

00:45You know, throughout time, civilizations have honored the powerful, the well-connected,

00:51and the well-born.

00:52Emperor's and kings have built magnificent shrines to their own royal greatness.

00:58Yet in America, with our great experiment in self-government, it is fitting that the most

01:04honored and closely guarded tomb in the land is that of an anonymous soldier of an unknown

01:12rank.

01:14When the first unknown soldier was selected for burial in 1921, he laid in state at the Capitol

01:20Rotunda, throngs of Americans paid their respects.

01:25When the tomb was dedicated on November 11, Veterans Day, the unknown received the Medal of Honor.

01:33It is a uniquely American tradition that we honor anonymous sacrifice above worldly greatness.

01:40While we don't know the unknown's identity, race, or creed, we know his story.

01:46It's the story of every soldier, every warrior.

01:53It is a wonderful story, as old as war.

01:57A young man with hopes and dreams and loves, who's called by his country, leaves behind his

02:02hometown, his parents, his siblings, his sweetheart, all that he knows to go fight a war that he

02:11may or may not understand.

02:15He's called to go through hell and back, to sleep in a trench, to eat out of a tin cup or

02:20on the hood of a Humvee, to pray as bullets and bombs thunder around him.

02:27To fear for the bullet or the mortar or the IED or the RPG with his name on it.

02:37He does it willingly and stoically, because he loves his country, his brothers in arms

02:44and his family.

02:45This is the story of the unknown.

02:48The story of the fallen soldier who we have gathered today to honor.

02:52It is the story of the American warrior.

02:56He answered the call, fought and died for this republic.

03:01The ultimate sacrifice of a free people.

03:04You see, the American soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him, but because

03:10he loves what's behind him.

03:14We honor his self for sacrifice, his courage, his duty, and his love.

03:21As Jesus taught his disciples, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his

03:27life for his friends.

03:30This love is a gift given freely.

03:32And yet this gift comes with responsibility to those living.

03:37We owe a duty to those who have fallen in war.

03:39They have paid a debt we can never repay.

03:42And for that, we owe gratitude and remembrance.

03:47We owe at least this, to remember their sacrifice and honor their memory year after year.

03:56Salute after salute, ceremony after ceremony, parade after parade, prayer after prayer.

04:02That by our remembrance, we keep lit the eternal flame of their heroic deeds in defense of our

04:09nation.

04:11And we owe eternal vigilance.

04:15Eternal vigilance.

04:16The price of freedom.

04:18These men died for something.

04:19The hope of a free, secure, and peaceful republic.

04:23That is our inheritance, and we must steward it and hand it down to our kids and our grandkids.

04:31We must live worthy of it.

04:36These men dreamt of a future in which their children would not fear of attack.

04:39No enemy could threaten their peace.

04:41No war could require them to take up arms.

04:45The duty we owe these men is peace, which only can be achieved through strength.

04:52And because we strive for peace, we must prepare for war.

04:58That's the job of the chairman and I and so many others at the Defense Department each

05:02and every day.

05:04We will never, on behalf of those who have given so much, we will never be complacent.

05:11We owe these men nothing less.

05:15Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

05:20So on this Memorial Day, in honor of the unknown soldiers, and the known, let us rededicate

05:27ourselves to God and country.

05:32To our great republic 249 years on, we stand on the shoulders of great men.

05:39And on the shoulders of those great men in those graves.

05:42And may we live worthy of it.

05:48God bless our warriors and may God bless our fallen.

05:51And amen.

05:56Ladies and gentlemen, the United States Marine Band.

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