Remember me. I am the fallen soldier, sailor, airman, and marine. I am the one that held the line.

Sometimes I volunteered. Sometimes I went because I was told to go. But when the nation called, I answered.

In order to serve, I left behind the family, friends, and freedom that so many take for granted.

Over time, I used different weapons. A sword, a musket, a bayonet, a rifle, a machine gun.

Often I marched into battle on foot, countless miles, across whole continents. I had little water and even less food, but it did not matter.

We had a job to do. Other times I rode to battle on horseback or in wagons, sometimes on trains, later in tanks or jeeps or humvees.

In early wars, my ships were made of wood and powered by the wind. Later, they were made of steel and powered by diesel fuel or the atom.

I even took to the air and mastered the sky in planes, helicopters, and jets.

The machines of war evolved and changed with the times. But remember that it was always me, the warrior that had to fight our nation's enemies.

I fought at Lexington in Concord, as our nation was born. I crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day in 1776. Freedom was on our side.

I defended the Chattahoochi River in the war of 1812. I would stand again.

In the Civil War, I fought with my brothers and against my brothers at Gettysburg and Shiloh and Bull Run.

I learned that we must never again divide.

In World War I, I marched on the morn and held the line at Bella Wood.

The war to end all wars, they called it. I just called it hell.

In World War II, I fought everywhere. From the beaches of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge to the Sands of Iwo Jima and the Hell of Guadalcanal.

I stood against tyranny and kept darkness from consuming the world.

In Korea, I landed at Incheon and broke out of the chosen reservoir.

They called it the Forgotten War. But I never forgot.

In Vietnam, I went and I fought. In the Maycon Delta and an I-drang and K-San and Hamburg or Hill.

Some say my country wavered. But I did not waver. Ever.

In the recent past, I fought in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, and other desperate places around the globe.

...