Today is the anniversary of two very different but important events in American history: the birth of Patriot officer and spy Nathan Hale in 1755 and the launch of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-controlled Normandy in 1945.
Though separated by nearly two centuries, Hale and the D-Day soldiers had three things in common: courage, patriotism, and the willingness to die to defend freedom. That is what has linked American heroes from the Revolution up through our present day. Those three virtues are also necessary for anyone wishing to bring about a reform and renewal of our country, which we desperately need.
Hale, betrayed to the enemy and sentenced to death at the young age of 21, famously said before he was hanged by the British for being an American Patriot spy, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” Hale had been a brilliant student at Yale, a popular teacher, and an able soldier. Handsome, intelligent, talented, and young, he had everything to live for and everything to lose. But he believed his country and his freedoms were more important than his future.
Likewise on D-Day and during the following Normandy campaign during World War II, we find countless stories of heroism. I wrote about two earlier today — Arthur Frederick DeFranzo and Charles N. DeGlopper, two of the D-Day Medal of Honor winners.
Related: Intrepid Heroes of the D-Day Invasion
Like Nathan Hale, DeFranzo and DeGlopper lost their lives fighting a ruthless enemy, but also like Nathan Hale, their heroism helped ensure the success of their fellow soldiers and inspired countless Americans, both civilians and soldiers.
Yesterday, June 5, was the anniversary of the death of another great American, Ronald Reagan. If WWII ended the evil empires of Nazi Germany and Japan, then Reagan in the Cold War defeated the evil empire of Soviet Russia. And like Hale, he understood both the value and the ever-present peril of possessing freedom — peril because there are always petty dictators looking to crush freedom.
Read Also: The Turn at Midway: When the Cards Finally Fell Our Way
In one famous quote, Reagan said:
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.
None of us want that fate, though there are days it seems perilously close to reality. The real question is what we are willing to sacrifice for freedom.
Some Americans fight on the battlefield or on secret and dangerous military missions like Hale, DeFranzo, and DeGlopper. Others face political battles and live to tell the tale, like Reagan. Whether at the local, state, national, or international level, each one of us is called to stand up to tyranny and defend freedom. We have but one life, and how better to spend it than in service to our country?
