Veterans Day: Their precious service;
our
renewed obligation
By House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Steve
Buyer
America
's veterans embody the ideals
upon which
This
Veterans Day, we will honor more than 25 million living veterans and the memory
of those patriots who came before them. With pride, we remember each soldier,
Marine, sailor, airman and Coastguardsman who has served our country by taking
up arms when called by our nation in a time of need. The sacrifices
ordinary American men and women from communities large and small have been
willing to make, often before they were past their teenage years, have secured
our nation unprecedented freedoms and made us the world's bulwark of liberty.
Veterans
Day celebrates what began as Armistice Day, marking on the eleventh hour of the
eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 the end of the bloody cataclysm known
as World War I, the "war to end all wars."
The
young patriots now returning from war in
Our
greatest privilege and responsibility as leaders of the House Committee on
Veterans' Affairs is to provide our veterans with a system that cares for their
wounds and ensures that they have an opportunity to succeed. Every Member
of the committee shares that calling.
Our
nation has kept faith with its veterans. Funding for veterans healthcare
and benefits is strong, and has increased more than 75 percent in the last
decade. VA healthcare is now synonymous with world-class quality. An
expansion of community-based outpatient clinics is enhancing access to care,
especially for rural veterans. Yet, we must never stop looking for ways to
improve the services we provide veterans.
Our
commitment to
And
so, at the appointed hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, let us
recall the precious service our veterans have rendered us and then let us renew
our obligation to them.
May
God bless our veterans and may God bless
Steve
Buyer
Chairman
Committee
on Veterans' Affairs
Congressman
Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) is Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
A 1980 distinguished military graduate of The Citadel, he was commissioned a
second lieutenant in the Army Reserve as a Medical Service Corps officer.
After graduation from
In 1990, with three days notice, Congressman Buyer closed his law practice to serve on active duty in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Congressman Buyer continues to serve as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.