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UTM honors nation's veterans

UTM Student SPC Joe Dacus of Dukedom among those to speak


UTM hosted a Memorial Day observance on May 28 to honor our nation's veterans. SPC Joe Dacus of Dukedom, and WWII veteran Joe Walker, of Martin gave the address.

During the commemoration, special tribute was paid to the late Marine Captain Brent Morel. Morel, a former UTM student, was killed in combat on April 7 in Fallujah, Iraq.

Police officers from the Department of Public Safety and the Martin Police Department closed the observance with a ten gun salute.

Dacus, a UTM student, returned to his studies after 10 months in Iraq. Walker is a veteran from WWII.

Full text of the speech given by Dacus can be found below: By Joe Dacus

Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to thank the men and women present who served our country in wars past, and kept it a place worth fighting for. To family members of fallen service members present, words can not begin to express my humble gratitude for the sacrifices of those you loved.

"We sometimes forget, I think, that you can manufacture weapons, and you can purchase ammunition, but you can't buy valor, and you can't pull heroes off an assembly line," --(SGT John Ellery, 16th INF REGT, 1st ID at the national D-Day Museum).

Ladies and gentlemen, it is those heroes that today we are gathered to honor. Heroes whose stories are not regaled in legendary tales by famous authors throughout history, but rather simply told from one generation to the next by the men and women who fought beside them. Heroes who in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, "Laid so great a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."

I am thankful to God that I had the honor of knowing some of these heroes personally, SGT Roger D. Rowe and SPC Thomas Arthur Foley III. The sands of Iraq is one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. This is a land where for the last 30 years a despotic regime had turned what is hailed by many as the cradle of civilization into a tyrant’s killing field. Evidence was seen of this in every facet of life, from abject poverty of the masses, to mass graves of the innocents who were slaughtered like animals, to the lavish lifestyles of those in power.

Though I had read about Iraq in books and magazines, and seen various television programs on the country, nothing compared to what I learned with my own eyes. It is one thing to see these things on television or in books; it is another to behold them personally. You almost can not come to terms with the fact that humans live in these conditions, and that this is all they know. You want to believe that it is a frightful dream, one from which you will awake at any moment. Yet you never wake, and the reality of it all quickly sinks in.

As Americans, we lived blissfully in a bubble before the events of September 11th. We believed that such horrible things were impossible in this day and age. On that fateful Tuesday morning, the bubble was shattered and this country saw for the first time that being the beacon of freedom to the rest of the world, has its costs. Over 200 years ago, Americans first took to arms to battle the forces of tyranny and oppression. That fight continues today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This country learned painfully in WWII, that power-hungry dictators can not be contained or appeased. Their lust for absolute power drives them in ways few people can fathom. This hunger can never be satiated. It grows in them day by day until either they accomplish their goals of total domination, or a force opposed to tyranny comes forward to face and defeat them. Today, we face not only despotic rulers who use torture and genocide as a means of achieving their aims, we face men who pervert religion for personal and political power. Men who claim great faith in God, yet lead their followers to do things that all faiths believe God condemns. These "terrorists" use this ideology as an excuse to slaughter innocent men, women and children.

Though their methods may change, and their origins differ from those tyrants of the past, agents of tyranny still exist today. They tried to smash the great bastion of freedom that is the United States and bring us to our knees. But they, like all others we have faced in our two hundred plus years of existence, have failed.

This country is meeting the challenge laid before us. Instead of allowing them to again target the innocent, we have taken this war against terror to them. They have found out the men and women of the armed forces of free countries throughout the world, are not as easy to kill as innocent civilians. That is a lesson our armed forces stand ready to teach them every day.

Unfortunately, wars can not be won without sacrifice, and that is what brings us here today, to honor those who have sacrificed so much. SGT Roger Rowe was a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, a friend, and a true American. Though already a war veteran and 54 years of age, he saw a chance to further serve the country he loved. He deployed with the 1174th Transportation Company to Iraq to take part in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

During his time in Iraq, he was quick to give a smile or counsel. He was a man strong in faith, and love for his family. He frequently spoke of his grandchildren, and his love for them. That is why I think he went with us to serve. He wanted a world where his grandchildren would not have to live in fear, but rather in freedom. SGT Rowe was quick to talk to Iraqi children we encountered, and even quicker to share candy or Army issued meals with them. In these Iraqi children, I believe he saw his own grandchildren, and that made his resolve even stronger.

SGT Rowe was killed on July 9, 2003, in an ambush just south of Baghdad while on a convoy bringing fuel to a base inside the Iraqi capital city. Though his life was ended, his memory and resolve will forever be etched into my heart. His love of freedom and want of its continuation, affected us all and drove us to continue the mission he set out on.

SPC Thomas A. Foley, or Tommy as I knew him, was a friend of mine from the time we were in elementary school. Tommy was a man of humble upbringing, who though not endowed with the finer things of life, would not hesitate to give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He was one of the good hearted people in life who would help anyone who needed it and expect nothing in return.

His good-hearted nature and desire to help led him to the United States Army, where he would have a chance to not only help individuals, but his country as a whole. I know in my heart that when Tommy saw the conditions of which the people in Iraq lived and died, he knew he was doing the right thing. Helping others was his strong point, his desire. Tommy was killed while carrying out this love of his on April 14th of 2003 in an explosion in northern Iraq.

Though these men are gone, the fruits of their sacrifice remain. Iraq is free of a dictator who murdered thousands, and the world is safer having one less tyrant in power. These men were both driven by their love of freedom and their willingness to serve their country. Both of them displayed all seven of the Army Values, Loyalty-Duty-Respect-Selfless Service-Honor-Integrity- and Personal Courage in their sacrifice.

These men also taught me a first-hand lesson. Though war is a horrible thing, sometimes it is the only way to secure a world worth living in. They reiterated to me that our freedom was won on the battlefield, and when powers rise to threaten it, it is on the battlefield where it is defended. They reminded me that there are things worth fighting for in this world, and that freedom is one of those things.

It is written that, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night, only because hard men stand ready to do violence on their behalf, and, when necessary, lay down their life to ensure the continuance of that slumber."

These men brought more to this life than many through their service to the greater good, and in their sacrifice and the sacrifices of all others before and since, they leave behind the benefits of freedom that we reap on a daily basis. Though we mourn their loss, we know their spirit endures not only in the hearts of their families and friends, but in the hearts of all Americans.

We commend their souls into the hands of God, yet if we listen closely, we can hear their spirits encouraging us to enjoy and never take for granted those freedoms that they purchased for us with their blood. I will never forget either one of these great men. When I arrived home I was called a hero. I am not. These men were heroes. My comrades and I are simply trying to live up to the examples that these men set. To protect freedom at all costs, for it is truly worth fighting for. May God bless the families of those who have fallen, may he bless those who are serving still, and may God bless America. Thank you.

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SPC Joe Dacus, right, of Dukedom, and WWII veteran Joe Walker, of Martin, talk to Molly Morel, of Martin, mother of the late Marine Captain Brent Morel, at the University of Tennessee at Martin Memorial Day observance Friday.