A Legacy of Service

On Veteran’s Day 2019, I had the privilege of speaking at our local Veterans Day Appreciation Breakfast. Following is a recap of that presentation:

Today, I salute all Coasties, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and Soldiers! Thank you for your service. I, too, am a veteran.

I hope you will indulge me a bit as I introduce you to some of my family members.

• My wife’s Great-Great-Grandfather, Private John Mann, served in the First Regiment of the South Carolina Continental Troops during the American Revolutionary War.
• My Great-Grandfather, 1LT Jefferson Green Lilly, served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
• My Grandfather, Wiley Jenkins Riley, served in the Army during WWI
• My father-in-law, PFC Frank Callaway, served in the Army in Europe during WWII, receiving the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
• My father, Major Joseph Franell, served as an airborne combat medic in the Army in the Korean War. In fact, he graduated the last combat glider training class the Army ever held. After returning stateside following the war, he got his commission in the US Air Force, and retired after the Vietnam War.
• My cousin, Colonel Bobby Lilly, was the first helicopter pilot shot down in Vietnam, spending seven and one-half years as a POW. His awards include three silver stars, two bronze stars with “V” device, and two purple hearts.
• My uncle, Captain Ray Daugherty, flew interceptors in the US Air Force, losing his life in the line of duty.
• My younger brother, Private Keith Franell, was an airborne rigger supporting the 82d Airborne Division.
• My son-in-law, Oregon National Guard Recruit Devon Mitchell, is currently attending Basic Training at Fort Jackson, S.C. His step-mother, SFC Cindy Lefore, is a combat veteran and full-time member of the Oregon Army National Guard.
• There is even a picture of me from more than 30 years ago, enjoying a little heat and humidity while carrying an M-60 machine gun.

As you can see, in both my immediate and extended family, there is a legacy of service and I am very proud of that. While I am only able to demonstrate that service back to the Revolutionary War, it remains a constant in our family.

So, hold that thought. I’m going to pause here and tell you a quick story that will introduce the next portion of my post.

Last June 5th, I was escorting a reporter from The Daily Le Monde newspaper (Paris, France’s daily newspaper) around Eastern Oregon to talk about rural broadband and show him some of the work that my company is doing. On our way out to meet with the mayor of Weston, he mentioned that he has a family home in Normandy which didn’t even have a telephone, much less Internet access. Since it was the day before the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landing, I asked him if the French remembered D-Day or if they even cared.

This reporter was visibly shocked by my question and quickly responded, “Yes, we care. We care very much!” He went on to explain how being occupied by Germany three times in a 50-year period had left deep scars on the French people and that they would be eternally grateful to the British and Americans for liberating them.

So, thinking about my family, your service, and the landings at Normandy, why do we serve?

I was in Washington D.C. last month and had the privilege of going through the National Holocaust Museum and Memorial. The museum takes you through how Adolph Hitler took a country of otherwise normal, everyday people and turned it into a hate driven, killing machine; a killing machine that murdered somewhere between 17 and 18 million people, including about six million Jews. The Nazi’s also targeted Russians, Poles, Gypsies, Serbs, people with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Freemasons, and other groups deemed to be inferior or a threat. The included pictures in this post help capture just a pale shadow of the horrors the Nazi’s brought to Europe.

Imagine what would have happened if the Nazi’s hadn’t been stopped. What if they went on to conquer the rest of the world?

As staggering as is the number 17 million, it pales in comparison to the numbers killed by communist regimes in the 20th century. From 1900 – 1987 estimates of those murdered by communist regimes exceed 100 million. Those who fought in Korea, Vietnam, and stood in the gap during the Cold War, halted the spread of that great evil in the world.

Today, those that serve are protecting the rest of us from the current threat against humanity that has taken the form of radical Islam.

As long as evil exists in the world, men and women like you will be needed. And, just because you no longer wear the uniform doesn’t mean that your service has ended. We might not still be able to fly combat jets, steer a submarine or surface ship, or carry an 80-pound ruck sack while armed with an M-60 machine gun, but we are still needed. The character that caused you to serve in the first place, your love of country and your fellow man, and your choice to defend what is good, are still needed, perhaps more than ever.

And so, while I thank you for your service, from the bottom of my heart, I also challenge you to continue to serve. Stand for what is right. Defend those who can’t defend themselves. The 18 million+ living veterans just like you are still needed.