Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins told Newsmax on Friday that Americans should be sure to remember fallen service members this Memorial Day and take the time to honor “their sacrifice for our country.”
When asked about how Americans can commemorate Memorial Day this year, Collins told “Wake Up America” that he would ask “them to think of everything that they get to do this weekend across the country, spending time with their families, spending time doing the events that they will have, but I also want them to remember that there's a reason that they're able to do that.”
He continued: “When they pass by one of our cemeteries, they pass by one of those areas that remembrance or something's going on, I want them to remember those who gave their life, their sacrifice for our country.”
Memorial Day “is a time in which we remember them,” Collins added. “This is something that is a very bedrock on the country in which we believe.”
The secretary said that although the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are considered over, American service members still lose their lives across the globe.
Earlier this year, four U.S. service members died in Lithuania during a training accident and two died in a vehicle accident after being assigned to the southern U.S. border.
“Even though we think now we're past the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and other things, we still lose our service members in conflict,” Collins added, noting that there are still families who “are going to gather this weekend with a missing person at a chair or table, or on that boat ride that they used to take because their loved one did not come home. And I think that's something we need to remember.”
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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