“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” -Ronald Reagan.
Senior Master Sergeant (retired) Harold Bargeron used the first sentence of that quote to punctuate what veterans mean to freedom Saturday, November 12.
Bargeron was speaking to a smaller than normal crowd gathered in the rain to pay tribute to Veterans Day at the Fannin County Veterans Memorial Park.
Bargeron, a veteran of both the United States Marine Corps and Air Force, talked of the determination among veterans to defend freedom. When the time comes, veterans stand “sholder to shoulder,” no matter their branch of service, Bargeron said.
He talked of the brotherhood that forms in the defense of freedom, and how that brotherhood lasts past a man’s or woman’s years of active service. “We’re still brothers today,” he said of the people he served with.
Bill Stodghill, commander of the North Georgia Honor Guard, talked of how those bonds are first created. Every veteran “writes a blank check up to and including their life” in defense of freedom, he said.