Memorial Day 2020

Updates:

• We officially have our first veteran applicant!

• We are working with the Texas and Virginia State Approving Agencies to get two new employers GI Bill certified.

• Stay tuned for information on our next podcast!

Memorial Day Reflections: When I think about the lives lost in service to this Nation, my mind is continually pulled to Abraham Lincoln’s “Letter to Mrs. Bixby”, brought to the forefront of modern consciousness by Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan.

It simultaneously captures my grief and intentions to honor the life and service of our veterans:

“I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.”

I was surprised to find that the letter is actually a controversial document among historians. Lincoln’s personal secretary, John Hay, may have penned the now famous words. There is also a question of Mrs. Bixby’s sympathies to the Confederacy and the possibility that not all her sons died in battle.

The conclusion I draw from all this is that humans are complex and history messy. That doesn’t change what the letter means to me now - a timeless message of gratitude for America’s Service Members.

Thank you for your continued support for veterans and Outlaws Inc.

-Jon