Good Afternoon!
Governor Calvo honors our island’s heroes this Memorial Day.
VIDEO: You can access the video by clicking HERE. See this and other videos on the Governor’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/
AUDIO: Listen to the audio by clicking the attachment.
TEXT: The text of the address follows:
Wrapped in a Blanket of Peace
By Eddie Baza Calvo
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My fellow Guamanians, my fellow Americans,
Not too long ago I made a promise to about 600 Guam National Guard Soldiers. I told them when they come back from deployment to Afghanistan they will return to an island better than they left it. Two of them won’t see that promise come true. Eugene Aguon and Dwayne Flores went to their eternal home instead. Theirs is an eternity of a far better promise…one of paradise and peace.
They entered Heaven through a tragic gateway…their path to peace was paved with their sacrifice and blood in a war for our freedom…in a fight for the freedom of foreigners…in a battle to protect families and children they never knew. They traded their lives for ours. I hardly feel worthy of their honor.
This is the true story of the real American hero…the men and women who laid down their lives at the alter of freedom…who believed with every ounce of courage in the promise of this country for all our countrymen. Today two more candles illuminate the Heavens, joining the millions of American servicemen and women whose sacrifices shine the beacon of liberty over the free, and in the hearts of the hopeful.
For over two centuries these men and women donned a uniform and took up arms…leaving their families and their homes to build bridges over battlefields and bring freedom to strangers. They left to fight for our rights to live how we choose to live…to speak freely, worship as we choose, raise our families, and pursue happiness in our hearts. They take up this fight in badlands and deserts wasted by the tyranny of war and terror…fighting for our freedom while they have none…fighting for our families never knowing whether they’ll see theirs…fighting for our happiness while they sacrifice.
There is no way we could ever match their contribution. They are protectors of Freedom…and we are the Americans they keep free…the Guardians of their Homeland. And so the greatest contribution we can make to these heroes in gratitude for their service is to promote the progress and opportunity they are fighting to give us. While they are away we have a sworn duty to use the freedom they give us to make life better for each other…for their families…for their homeland.
And for the Heroic Guardian Angels whom we remember this Memorial Day…for Eugene and Dwayne…and for every servicemember who went before them: We can never repay their sacrifice, but we can fight for what they fought for, in our own way. Let us honor their memory by moving this island forward…giving pride to the flag they fought under…the one that covers them as they rest for all time.