We all know the stress of preparing for a trip – the planning, the packing, getting airline tickets or gassing up the family car. The details of travel can be overwhelming.
For the men and women of the 1140th Combat Engineering Battalion in the Missouri Army National Guard – their preparations for travel have been different. They are packing desert camouflage (the soldiers call them “coffee stains”), gas masks, and mementoes of their family and loved ones to keep their spirit strong on the mission they are about to undertake.
They are taking phone cards with them so they can call home. They are packing wet wipes to get the sand out of their eyes. Our soldiers are packing lighter bags than most of us take on a three-day business trip, but they will be gone for many more than three days.
This weekend, I had the distinct honor of giving them a Missouri send-off at their deployment ceremony. It is an emotional day – but the emotions involved are pride, patriotism, and honor. These men and women are embarking upon a mission of the ultimate public service.
Our sons and daughters are joining a long line of Missourians who have carried our standard of freedom to the ends of the earth. They are ambassadors of freedom and strong warriors for that cause.
I have been to Iraq, and I can tell you that you are joining fellow Americans and fellow Missourians who are doing a wonderful job. Every soldier I met who was not in the field was anxious to return to it. Just as I do, they believe in the power of our nation to do good in the world.
It was an important thought to consider as the 1140th prepared to leave for Iraq, because they are engineers, builders, creators. To most Americans, their vision of a free and democratic Iraq is represented in ideals and institutions. These dedicated men and women know that it exists first in concrete, steel, and sweat.
The 1140th Combat Engineer Battalion is not packing to go to Iraq with the sword in hand, they are going with the plowshare and the builder’s square. Others before them have liberated the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein, from terror, and from oppression. They are leaving for Iraq with a new mission: to liberate the same people from poverty, from fear, and from hopelessness.
They are going to Iraq to help a new nation lead an entire region of our world to peace and stability.
They will lead by the example they learned growing up amid our strong Missouri values. The efforts our soldiers make will show the Iraqi people that, where once a thousand bound hands could do nothing, a thousand free hands can build a school and teach children. A thousand free hands can construct irrigation ditches, purify water, and assemble sewage systems in communities that have never had them. A thousand free hands can build a bridge in a day. A thousand free hands can connect two nations – one experienced in freedom and one newly born – across oceans and deserts and fields of fertile lands.
A thousand free hands can free another thousand, which can in turn free a nation.
Our mission is just as much an endeavor to create lasting peace as it is to stop impending conflicts. The best way to stabilize the Middle East is to lend our free hand to a people who have suffered painful times, whose view of the Western World is distorted, and who are forced to put family ahead of community.
Because of the helping hands our troops offer, Iraq is no longer a threat to its neighbors – it is an example. Iraqis who once suffered under a cruel regime can now slowly turn to self-government. Iraq’s free society is painful to build, but it is possible to build and it is worthwhile.
While our troops are on this trip, we at home have an obligation to them and to their families. We owe them our prayers. We must support their families through our mutual patriotism. Lend a helping hand to the military family in your neighborhood. Attend the ball game of a soldier’s son or daughter. Go to their church plays and choir concerts. While their mothers and fathers fill a void in a community half the world away, we can fill the void they have left, temporarily, in ours.
They will pay us back by making us proud.
We thank them for their service, and we hope to have you home safe and soon. God bless our great nation, and God bless you.
