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Memorial Day

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In my last blog, I paid tribute to our new graduates and pointed out that their futures will be shaped less by the credentials they have earned than by the character it took to earn them.

In honor of Memorial Day, I would like to highlight some UT graduates whose character, bravery and selflessness led them to give, in Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, “the last full measure of devotion” to our country.

William “Hawk” Hawkins was a heck of a student. Growing up in El Paso, he skipped fifth grade, graduated high school at sixteen and earned a scholarship to Texas College of Mines (known today as UT El Paso), where he studied engineering. Hawk was also a patriot, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Less than six months later, he was leading a scout-sniper platoon on a small island in the Pacific. During a two-day fight, First Lieutenant Hawkins personally initiated an assault on an enemy position fortified by five machine guns. Despite being seriously wounded, he refused to withdraw and destroyed three machine gun positions before being mortally wounded on November 21, 1943.

In the late 1930s, Neel Kearby – dubbed “one of the great U.S. fighter pilots of World War II” by Time Magazine – was an anonymous young man earning a degree in business administration from North Texas Agricultural College (UT Arlington today). By 1943, Colonel Kearby was commanding the 348th Fighter Group in the Southwest Pacific Theater. Frequently leading missions himself, he was credited with 22 aerial victories in just a few months. In one mission alone, Neel destroyed six enemy aircraft – the most ever for an American pilot at that time. Tragically, he was shot down and killed on March 5, 1944 over New Guinea.

On February 1, 1970, First Lieutenant Russell Steindam – an Austin native, and UT Austin graduate – was leading a night operation in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh Province when his platoon came under heavy attack. Steindam was directing fire back at the enemy when a fragmentation grenade landed in the position he and his men occupied. Without hesitation, Russell shouted a warning and threw himself on the grenade, absorbing its full deadly impact and saving the lives of his comrades.

Hawkins, Kearby and Steindam were all awarded the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest and most prestigious military decoration. Their heroics have been written into history, and rightly so.

But I hope you will pause and remember the many thousands of American heroes whose stories are unsung. The brave, selfless men and women who – from the War of Independence to present day – have offered their own lives to help assure the life of our great country.

It has been said that for those of us who have served in the military, every day is Memorial Day – and I can affirm that not a day goes by that I don’t think of the young men and women I served alongside who died in service to their country. Every one of them was a volunteer. Every one of them understood the danger of what they had signed up for. And yet, every single one of them raised their hand and said, “Send me.”

My hope is that as we enjoy the lives they helped make possible, we will resolve as a nation – not just to remember – but to emulate the character of our fallen heroes.

Let us strive – on Memorial Day and every other day – to be worthy of their sacrifice, and of all the gifts we have been given.

Thank you, as always, for reading. I’ll write again soon.