It’s an honor and privilege to be here today with all of you as we celebrate and remember all who have fought and died and served to preserved this great nation. On this Veterans Day, let us especially remember the soldiers and their families from the recent tragedy at Fort Hood.

Ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things.

Simply put, that’s who veterans are.

Young and old — rich and poor — black and white — and nearly every category in between, they are men and women who served or still serve America.

Some have endured great hardships, separation from family and drastically altered lifestyles. Some have experienced the horrors of war. All sacrificed something so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have today.

In 2004, while serving on a NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, I traveled to Germany to meet with one our soldiers who had been burned in an explosion. At the Army hospital in Landstuhl, I visited with a number of injured soldiers from Iraq. These men were fresh from the battlefield and physically torn up. To a man, they indicated to me that their biggest disappointment was not in being injured, but not being able to continue to serve their country with their comrades in arms who were still fighting in the desert. These were ordinary young men, with an extraordinary commitment.

Just last week, at Fort Hood, Texas, when the deranged gunman started to shoot soldiers at the Readiness Processing Center, there were accounts of soldiers running toward the sounds of gunshots and ripping their clothing off their bodies to stem the flow of blood from their fallen comrades. Who in our American society would run towards the sound of weapons fire but a veteran of America’s armed forces?

When then-Gov. Ronald Reagan introduced returning POW John McCain at a speaking engagement in 1974, the future president asked, “Where do we find such men?”

He was speaking of many veterans, when he answered, “We find them in our streets, in the offices, the shops and the working places of our country and on the farms.”

In other words, President Reagan was referring to ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things. And it isn’t just the men.

Army Spc. Monica Brown was still a teenager when she went on a routine patrol as a medic in Afghanistan in 2007. Caught under insurgent fire in Paktika Province, she and her platoon sergeant ran a few hundred yards toward a burning Humvee.

Dodging rounds by only inches, Spc. Brown helped pull injured soldiers from the vehicle and rendered life-saving first aid. For her actions, she was awarded a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest combat decoration. When she enlisted at age 17, the native of Lake Jackson, Texas, had aspirations of becoming an X-ray technician, but the Army convinced her that being a medic would offer her the greatest opportunity to help her fellow soldiers.

But to credit the Monica Browns and other brave heroes in our military with helping only their comrades is short-sighted.

They are helping us.

It is America, not America’s military, that al-Qaida and other terrorists have declared war on.

But it is our armed forces that carry the great burden and responsibility of defending us. Fortunately, our military is made up of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things.

Fewer than 10 percent of Americans can claim the title “military veteran.” And what a list of accomplishments can those 10 percent claim!

From defeating communism, fascism and imperialism, to keeping the peace during the Cold War and battling terrorism today, America owes a debt to her veterans that can never be repaid.

Today is important because we choose to honor the living veterans from the Greatest Generation to the Latest Generation. But we must honor them with deeds, not just words.

English Statesman George Canning wrote: “When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?”

Our sense of gratitude cannot “sleep.” We must be willing to pick them up when they are down, help point the way to new life when they return home and carry them when they are weary. We, the many, have benefited from the sacrifice and service of the relative few and it is our responsibility to ensure our veterans are cared for and tended to; it is a responsibility that we are obligated to fulfill. It is one that honor demands of us.

Our obligation does not stop with the soldier, as it is owed to the military families who have sacrificed so much for their country as well.

We must honor all of these families and not just with Blue and Gold Star banners, but with compassionate hearts.

Post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and life-altering war wounds not only affect the veteran, but can also take an enormous toll on the family as well.

While veterans are often ordinary people who accomplish extraordinary things, it is often an extraordinary family that supports the ordinary veteran. And it is the veterans that have given us this extraordinary country.

Thank you all for being here, God bless our veterans and God bless America.

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