Oath. Memorial Day 2024.

There is an oath echoed around these fifty states, five days per week, over and over and over again. Young men and women stand in their jeans, sneakers, and t-shirts and pledge their lives to service, to something larger than themselves.

They commit their efforts to safeguarding more than 330 million other people.

It’s an insurmountable commitment, an oath which cannot be grasped and held.

But they are willing.

There is an innocence at Military Entrance Processing Stations, the wide eyes and tired eyes of recruits meeting their worried mother’s eyes, their proud father’s. The recruits are eager, and afraid. Some are well-groomed, others will let their basic training barber do the work.

They are young.

And they all take the oath.

They all add their voice to the echo, the echo which has never once scoffed at men for weeping. It is clear, concise, and wholly life changing.

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies.

Do they know what it means?

Many do. Others will learn it from their superiors, combat veterans, and friends they meet while in uniform. They’ll hear stories of valor, sacrifice, and heroism. The blood pumping in their veins will feel different, their breath will be deeper, their muscles and mind will become tougher. All from taking the oath. The oath so many have taken.

I will bear true faith and allegiance.

These days, powerful words are watered down, overused, and run over by social media and social movements. But true faith and allegiance is a potent phrase. These words are rarely uttered unless beneath an American flag, and you’d be hard pressed to find them on Instagram.

True faith and allegiance to what? To the Constitution. To the nation. To 330+ million people who lay their heads down at night, often unthinking of men and women around the globe with the American flag on their shoulder.

On the ground, in the skies, and on the seas the oath reaches forward, a shield of men and women who commit each day to supporting and defending with true faith and allegiance.

There is nothing that requires more of a person than this oath.

When we remember the flag-draped caskets, the blood-soaked earth of past battlefields, and the men and women who took their oaths to deaths in uncomfortable, hostile places, we pay due respect to the clear, concise oath.

When we remember their ultimate sacrifice, visit their graves, and recall their lives, we pay homage to that moment they stood and took the oath.

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Those words are immortal because there is no short supply of duty and sacrifice in this nation. That’s what it takes to honor the oath, to hear those words forever, to know that an enemy will never land upon these shores, or bring any kind of fight to our cities, communities, and homes.

Duty and sacrifice.

Honor them by yours.

True faith and allegiance.

Is there a higher calling?

We participate in the insurmountable commitment, the oath which is only grasped and held by those who have fought and died for our flag, whenever we carry those words with us. When we remember the men and women who have laid down and died for freedom, when we do not take our own comfortable lives for granted, we participate.

And they deserve that.