Selfless Service and Duty Faithfully Performed

I am a retired Army officer and Alumni of UVA's Army ROTC program, and wanted to share with all of you an event that occurred yesterday 10 Nov 09 at Our Lady of Peace home in Charlottesville. My father is an 87 year old Marine who has attended the Marine Corps Annual Birthday Ball at UVA for the past 15 years, but this year could not. I spoke with the NROTC PMS at 0900 hrs that morning and asked whether a Marine could visit with him for a few minutes. Two Marines responded within fours hours. They visited with my father, but also asked the home's director for the names of every veteran in the large, three building complex that includes residents in independent living, assisted living, Alzheimer's Care Unit, and a Nursing Home Unit. The Marines went to see every veteran of every service in the entire complex. The only veterans they did not see were the ones who were not there that day. There are no words that describe this honorable and selfless service. I could not reach the PMS today to say thank you, but am placing the record of this patriotism, valor,and fidelity in as many places I can tonight. I will learn the names of those two outstanding Marines and do my very best to see that they as well as the PMS are formally recognized. As a soldier, I know they view this action as simply "duty faithfully performed." But in a nation at War, any opportunity to give evidence of the outstanding quality of the men and women who stand before the powers of chaos, on our behalf, must be shared.

Thank you so very much, LTC Charles M. Herbek US Army (Ret)

Chatham

The winter of 1863 was hard.