Enduring Freedom Honor Team Mission

Our history, particularly World War II, has been of great interest to me.  What other event of the 20th century has shaped not only Americans, but the entire world.  Everything we are, have been, and will be as a nation has been overshadowed by the events that engulfed so much of mankind.  Collectively it may be the most emotional and tension-filled period of modern time.

Looking back we learn more about this period almost everyday.  Our global community was awed by an imminent brink of total catastrophe.  Should technology have progressed any faster for the Axis, we would have found ourselves in a lifestyle of stark contrast compared to our precious freedom of today.  Knowing our history and specifically the men and women who participated by deep sacrifice in those freedoms are what makes our freedoms so precious today.  Freedom is not hard to forget, if you are truly thankful for your freedom.  You cannot separate the two from each other.  Freedom and sacrifice are synergists to liberty.

Those young men and women who answered our nation's call to arms did not know the magnitude their decision held for the fate of mankind.  Evil and its cohorts had not only reared their ugly head, but were personified by pitting race against race for the purpose of total destruction.  How so much power fell into the hands of evil men to wield in such destructive force had to be stopped.  It is these young men and women who knew they had to stand and be counted for freedom.

It is this courage that continues to ring through six decades.  It is not our history books that remember these heroic deeds, but our hearts that must measure the gratitude of yesterday.  We show "Our Greatest Generation" that we will never will forget their great sacrifice.  For it is their sacrifice that supplies our freedoms today.  Freedoms we enjoy can be taken for granted.  Freedom may not disappear because we forget those who paid its price, but will absolutely fade from our conscience unless we mentor the sacrificial spirit entrusted to us by these great Americans.

It seems a pale tribute to just thank our older generation in passing several times each year.  But by more than remembering we can actively express our gratitude for their sacrifice.  The Enduring Freedom Honor Team is dedicated to an expression of gratitude by music as we value the sacrifice of our Greatest Generation. 

Greg Reed
Commander, Enduring Freedom Honor Team