AFSC Airmen, on Armed Forces Day we thank those who are serving.

On Veterans Day we say thank you to those who served.

On Memorial Day we honor and remember those who served in the Armed Forces and gave all of their tomorrows for our todays.

We only have to look around us to see what we have, but Memorial Day is when we remember why. Amazing men and women from the beginning of our history as a nation to present day have laid down their own futures for us to have a better one. They have purchased and maintained so much of our freedom and preserved so many of our choices that we even have the freedom to not remember their sacrifice. Let’s choose to remember. Remember that we are at war, and enemies want to take our freedoms away.

The history of Memorial Day began three years after the Civil War ended; on 5 May 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans – the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on 30 May throughout the nation. Memorial Day was first observed as a national holiday in 1971 by an act of Congress that made the official federal observance the last Monday of May.

This year some will place flowers, a wreath, or an American flag at a gravestone, and some will visit memorials and monuments. However you choose to personally observe the day, take a moment, pause, and reflect on the high cost of our freedoms, and remember those who served and gave their lives for us. 

While it may be a heavy day for many of us mourning the absence of friends, parents, children, and comrades, it is also a day of gratitude; it is a day to be thankful for the freedoms we have, and the reasons why we have them.

Thank you for serving in your critical role in the Air Force Sustainment Center. Your effort in delivering combat power for America protects our country, saves lives, serves our warfighter, and guarantees our freedoms.

To the spouses, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and comrades of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, thank you. We remember…and we always will.

Your fellow Airman,

LEE K. LEVY II

Lieutenant General, USAF

Commander