Editor’s Note: As a general practice, The Sun Times News does not publish opinion essays. We chose to share this Memorial Day reflection online because it offers a personal perspective on military service, sacrifice, and remembrance from a local veteran and public servant. The views expressed are solely those of the author.
Remembering the Fallen and the Cost of Freedom
By Col. Joseph Burkhead, USAF
You are free to choose your path in life.
You exercise faith or beliefs according to your own conscience. You can speak freely and even criticize, protest, and petition the government and its officials. You exert power over your government in the voting booth. You can bear arms. You have judicial, fair trial, and privacy rights that tens of millions only dream of having. And you live in a land of relative tranquility and peace, securely defended by armed forces led by Generals, civilian leadership, and a Commander-in-Chief who must answer to the Constitution and the American people. You are a free citizen living in a nation governed by the people for the people.
Contrast all that against portions of my life spent in a mix of countries where authoritarian governments make those who speak against the state disappear, where rising to political power only comes by being born in the right family, and where violent extremist groups ban girls from attending school and brutally oppress women.
For most of human history, the freedoms Americans enjoy today were unknown to much of the world. By any historical measure, being born into a free and democratic society is extraordinarily rare. And to this date over one million Americans have paid the ultimate price with their lives to secure your freedom and to maintain it for 250 years. Do we truly understand how much we are given at how great a cost? And does that understanding translate into words and actions that revere and honor the priceless legacy of freedom we so providentially inherited?
Moments spent learning about the personal stories of sacrifice, toil, courage, and commitment of those who granted us our freedom will blossom into endearing gratitude. Take for example a man in the 1800s who was so motivated to see slavery in our country abolished that he enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 54 leaving his wife and seven children not knowing if he would ever see them again.
After enlisting in the Michigan 16th Regiment and just a few months before the war ended he was tragically killed in action in the successful assault on a Confederate fort in the Battle of Peeble’s Hill, Viriginia. That man was my 4th Great-Grandfather Thomas Burkhead. His commander, Colonel Norval E. Welch, was also killed during the assault when he was shot in the head calling out to the regiment with a sword in hand, “On boys, and over!” After learning about the valor of these men, I felt more deeply indebted for the ultimate price they paid for us all. Freedom isn’t free.
Would those who’ve paid the ultimate price be satisfied with our stewardship of freedom? Are we honoring them in our words and especially our deeds? Are we willing to pass the torch of liberty to future generations like they did for us, even if it requires our own courage, commitment, toils, or even sacrifice?
In this special year of America’s 250th anniversary celebration and in this solemn Memorial Day season it is an opportune time to translate our reverence and gratitude for the fallen into legacy-carrying action. As a first step, we can learn more about Americans who gave their all. Books, family history records, historical sites, libraries, and a wealth of information online offer a ready reservoir of stories and historic accounts that beckon our discovery and attention.
After engaging with this history, my second invite is to take action. Let us all do something this year that will help preserve and continue the legacy of liberty in our nation and our posterity for the next 250 years. In this Semiquincentennial year, may we rise to a duty President Lincoln called us to fulfill in his Gettysburg Address to be “dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
About the author: Colonel Joseph Burkhead, USAF is a resident of Lyndon Township with over 22 years of service in the military including deployments to Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Asia and is currently active in the Air Force Reserve. He also served in the FBI and Defense Attache Service and volunteers in the Civil Air Patrol, American Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. He has instructed university courses in Comparative Politics and Geography. Above all, he is a grateful husband and father to two children.
Featured photo: Colonel Joseph Burkhead saluting Thomas Burkhead & family’s memorial in Charlotte, MI, May 28, 2023. Courtesy of Joseph Burkhead.
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