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Honor the sacrifices of military members and their families, says Rep. Chris Stewart, an Air Force veteran

By https://author-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub/sltrib/9b3c922a-89b6-44d4-95bb-4cb21e1fff64.jpg Paighten Harkins
 | Nov. 11, 2017, 4:18 p.m.
| Updated: 8:36 p.m.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) "I'm here to salute [veterans] and thank them for their service," said Albert Mora, 69, while watching the parade with his grandsons and wife. "They get a kick out of it and so do I." Mora's grandson Adrian, 7, salutes veterans at his side. Mora, an Army Airborne veteran who served in Vietnam, carried his older brother's WWII M-1 Grand rifle. Mora said seven of his eight brothers served in WWII, Korean War and the Vietnam War. Northern Utah’s 12th Annual Veterans Day Parade Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017 in Layton.


Rep. Chris Stewart had a simple message for those who came to hear him speak for Veterans Day at the Farmington City Cemetery: Remember the sacrifices.

An Air Force veteran himself, Stewart, R-Utah, told the crowd to remember and recognize the hardships military members face — and that they often don’t face the challenges alone.

If they don’t have a wife at home, they have a husband, or parents, or siblings.

“You have to remember that when they sacrifice, that there are families who are sacrificing, as well. We have to recognize that sacrifice,” he said.

As the son of an Air Force veteran who has many other military members in the family, Stewart told the crowd he’s seen firsthand the sacrifices people make.

Like when his mother loaded up seven kids and drove across the country alone because of his dad’s service, or how his nephew has to leave behind his wife and kids to go to special training on the East Coast, or the rows and rows of the nearly identical markers at military cemeteries he’s seen on his travels around the world.

“When we think of the sacrifice, I think all of us wonder, or at least we should wonder, why are they willing to do it? Why is someone willing to pay that price, in some cases the ultimate price?” he said.

The answer, Stewart said, is love of country and preserving and spreading freedom.

Of the estimated 100 billion people who’ve lived on Earth, only a small percentage have experienced freedom, and most of those people are alive right now, Stewart said.

“We are truly living in a remarkable time. We are living in a time when most of us look around and say, as I said, ‘Nah, this is way people lived.’ This is not true,” he said.

Stewart returned to his hometown Saturday for American Legion Post 27’s Veterans Day ceremony. About 80 people attended the event, which included short remarks by Mayor Jim Talbot and Post 27 Cmdr. Kent Hansen.

The event began at 11:11 a.m. with a flag ceremony and the pledge of allegiance.

Scott Karren came to the cemetery Saturday with his four grandchildren, his wife and his father-in-law, a World War II veteran.

Karren, whose dad was in the Army during the Korean War, said he brought his grandchildren to the ceremony to remind them how precious freedom is. He said that’s a concept many younger people don’t understand.

“I just want to make sure they understand the sacrifices that all these people have made throughout the years to keep us free,” he said.


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