MEMORIAL DAY 2026: We Honor Those who Gave Their Last Full Measure of Devotion to Our Nation

I served 23 years in the United States Army. I fought with our brave soldiers in Vietnam. I stood next to many who gave their last full measure during Tet of 1968.

Memorial Day has a special meaning to all those who have served honorably.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history: The Gettysburg Address. The Union victory at Gettysburg was a key moment in the Civil War—thwarting General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North. President Lincoln offered this brief speech in a dedication ceremony for a new national cemetery near the Gettysburg battlefield. Lincoln was not even the featured speaker that day. Noted orator Edward Everett spoke for nearly two hours, while Lincoln spoke for a mere two minutes.

In his powerful address, Lincoln embraced the Declaration of Independence, recalling how the nation was “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” By resurrecting these promises, Lincoln committed post-Civil War America to “a new birth of freedom.” Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction Amendments—the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments—abolished slavery, wrote the Declaration of Independence’s commitment to freedom and equality into the Constitution, and promised to ban racial discrimination in voting. In so doing, the amendments sought to make Lincoln’s “new birth of freedom” a constitutional reality.

The last full measure of devotion

“The last full measure of devotion” is a phrase from President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War. It refers to the ultimate sacrifice made by soldiers who gave their lives—specifically those who died at the Battle of Gettysburg—in service to the nation and the cause of preserving a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Lincoln used the phrase to honor the fallen soldiers, emphasizing that their sacrifice had already consecrated the battlefield far more than any words or ceremony could.

The expression signifies the maximum possible commitment, often interpreted as giving one’s life for a noble cause.

In the speech, Lincoln calls on the living to take renewed dedication from this sacrifice and to ensure that “these dead shall not have died in vain” by continuing the struggle for national unity, freedom, and American ideals.

The phrase has since become a solemn way to honor military personnel who have died in service, especially during Memorial Day observances.

The Bottom Line

This Memorial Day, we pause with you to honor those who sacrificed everything for our freedoms.

Perhaps you’ve noticed it already in our culture—a disregard for our military, little gratitude for American liberty, and even scorn for the men and women who laid down their lives.

The people erasing our history have been working on that project for a generation. Patiently. Methodically. Not by accident. It’s happening in elementary schools and it’s happening on college campuses. The outcome in both places is the same: a generation who doesn’t know what this country costs nor why it matters.

We must never allow our childrren to forget the sacrifices of our military and they must understand that these men and women did not die in vain!

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MEMORIAL DAY MAY 25, 2026 – RAISE OUR FLAG, HONOR OUR DEAD, ENJOY OUR FAMILY, AMERICA…BLESS GOD!