A solemn obligation

Editor’s Note: The following is text of Gov. Eloy S. Inos’ speech at the Memorial Day ceremony in Marpi on May 26, 2014.

Before I begin, I’d like to take a moment to recognize our veterans here with us today from all branches of our Armed Forces. I’d also like to greet, if they are here today, our Guam National Guard members from the Northern Marianas. Last Memorial Day, I asked those present to pray for your safety while you were away, and it’s good to see that those prayers kept you safe during your deployment and brought you back home.

Hafa adai, tirow, and good morning!

On this solemn Monday morning, we come to pay homage to those who gave their all for all of us. Today, we come to pay our respects to the beloved souls who lie in this cemetery and to all who selflessly gave their lives in defense of our way of life. This commemoration brings with it an even more special feeling as we also prepare to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Saipan and Tinian this year.

Memorial Day brings with it a plethora of emotions. For some, it brings a feeling of sorrow, thinking of loved ones who are no longer with us that for some to this day, still mourn. For others, it brings a sense of pride, pride in knowing that when the going gets tough, there were people who stood in the face of adversity and were brave enough to defend us, knowing the danger that awaited them.

But for all of us today, we share one trait when Memorial Day comes around, and that trait is the desire to give honor for their heroism and selflessness. The men and women that we honor today are a mixed and diverse bunch of individuals, each serving at a different point in history against many different enemies. Some buried here fought seven decades ago in liberating our islands, several from the Marine Scouts, some in Korea, others in Vietnam, some fought in Desert Storm, while others supported the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. What they differed from each other in life is what unites them in death, that when our people needed them, they were there ready to fight against our adversaries.

In our tiny islands, we see ourselves as one family unit. For many of us, these people were our relatives. To some, they were more than that. They were our sons, our daughters, our companions.

Some of them we even saw grow up before our eyes to become better over time, yet didn’t live enough to see how their lives would turn out, or how they would be remembered. But they will forever be memorialized, through the stories shared by their spouses, their children, their relatives, and their friends. Though we cannot see them, we can be assured that they will live on through every single man and woman who puts on a uniform in service of our country.

And we can further rest assured that their legacies will be carried on by their battle buddies, the veterans who still serve us today, and who have served us in the past. Though we wish they were still with us now, we can take solace that through their bravery, we have gained guardians who now protect us from above from the same dangers that still threaten us in this time.

This morning, we join as a proud and grateful nation to honor the brave buried in this field, as well as all our region’s fallen heroes as a reminder of just what kind of people we are, a people who will not stand for injustice, a people ready to be called upon when needed, to help those who need it most. And we will continue to be this way until every weapon is put down, and when every citizen of this planet can finally live in what we call here in the islands, inafa’måolek, peace and harmony.

In a way of summing up everything here today, I’d like to leave you with a quote from a military man who oversaw the fighting done here 70 years ago. His name was Adm. Chester Nimitz. It goes:

“They fought together as brothers in arms; they died together and now they sleep side by side…To them, we have a solemn obligation—the obligation to ensure that their sacrifice will help make this a better and safer world in which to live.”

As one family, as one community, let us continue to fulfill this obligation today, tomorrow, as long as we can.

May God bless us all. Olomwaay, si yu’os ma’ase’, and thank you. (By ELOY S. INOS, Special to the Saipan Tribune)