Showing posts with label Romney Veterans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romney Veterans. Show all posts

May 26, 2007

Press Releases from governor Mitt Romney on veterans

2007

2006

2005

  • 06-07-2005, Romney announces $3 million veterans cemetery expansion
  • 11-03-2005, Romney declares November "hire a veteran" month

2004

  • 11-30-2004, Romney dedicates I-495 overpasses to wartime heroes
  • 09-23-2004, Romney signs law protecting armed service members
  • 05-28-2004, Romney marks memorial day by honoring veterans

2003

  • 08-28-2003, Romney appoints state's 1st secretary of veterans' services

Quotes from Governor Mitt Romney on Veterans

  • "For anyone who follows the news, the past few weeks has seen an increase in terrorist attacks against peace and civilization. From the bombing of the United Nations hotel in Baghdad to the continuing assaults against our troops in Iraq, we are coming to fully appreciate the sacrifice our men and women in uniform make on a daily basis."
  • "By elevating the commissioner's office to the secretariat level, we are bestowing on our veterans a stronger and more direct voice in the administration of our government," Mitt Romney said. "It is a status they richly deserve."
  • "Our veterans and their families have given so much of themselves to protect and defend our country that our state government in return should do every thing possible to ensure their voices are heard."
  • "It is time to acknowledge the extraordinary sacrifice of all of our veterans. While many Massachusetts soldiers served our nation in a period technically dubbed 'peacetime,' they restored American pride in the wake of Vietnam and helped bring a successful end to the Cold War. The service of these men and women was not without cost. There are countless stories of soldiers who served with great distinction only to be denied veteran status after returning home. Every man and woman who volunteered to serve this country should be treated with the same degree of respect, gratitude and dignity."
  • "The American servicemen and women of the Guard and Reserve leave their jobs, their spouses and their children to wear the uniform that defends our country. This selfless commitment should be honored by businesses across Massachusetts as we work to ensure they are treated fairly while they balance their employment responsibilities and obligations to the armed services. No business should ever put the bottom line ahead of America's front line."
  • "Today, on behalf of the entire Commonwealth, we remember Elia Fontecchio and offer a special thanks to every veteran from the Greater Milford area. In protecting the promise of individual freedom, they have created a better world for generations to come. Their sacrifices will never be forgotten."
  • ""This cemetery is a tangible reminder of the country's appreciation for the sacrifices veterans have made in the cause of freedom"
  • "Our veterans know the meaning of service better than anyone else and they aren't about to quit working when they come home. The best reward we can provide our vets for their service isn't a medal or a check; it's a livelihood and a means of supporting themselves and their families."
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 11-03-2005 Press Release
      • Press release promoting "Hire a Veteran" month
  • "I want to salute the Massachusetts employers who have hired or plan to hire veterans this year," said Romney. "As our troops return home, we remain mindful that the best way to honor their service is to help them to reenter the workforce."
  • "One of the highest duties of government is our obligation to take care of the men and women who defend this nation. This legislation follows through on that commitment by providing additional benefits to disabled veterans, as well as to the families of soldiers killed or missing in action."

See Also

  1. National Defence
  2. Military
  3. Peace Through Strength
  4. Terror
  5. Terrorism
  6. War
  7. War On Terror

Speeches

Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks at the Boston State House Veteran’s Day, 2006

Good morning.

 

In the past four years, I have spoken with service men and women from every part of our Commonwealth. I have met their families – parents, wives and husbands, and children. We have spoken in the anxious days and hours before deployment to far-off and dangerous places. And, I've welcomed our service men and women home.

 

Their sacrifices inspire – there's the star athlete who now walks with a cane, the proud hero who taught himself how to tie his shoes with an aluminum arm. And then, there were others who did not return. Army Lt. Derek Hines, a 25-year-old known for his love of hockey and infectious grin, was struck down in a firefight in Afghanistan. I met yesterday with the grieving 20-year-old widow of Edward Garvin, Lance Corporal – she and her husband were best friends since the 2nd grade, then sweethearts. He was killed 40 days after his deployment to Iraq.

 

In these last few years, I have attended almost 40 funerals and wakes. Every fallen soldier, every wounded veteran, every grieving loved one, paid the price for freedom and for peace. All they require of us is to care for those they left behind, to console and to shelter, and to remember the immeasurable debt we owe.

 

New heroes are paying the price, even today. I fear that freedom will always exact a heavy toll, until perhaps, at last, the Creator will say, "It is finished." Oh how I wish peace and freedom could be won without so dear a price, without conflict, without soldiers, without war, without death. The history of mankind tells a very different story. Think of the human toll: the people who died in the last century because of organized violence was over 160 million.

 

The sad lesson of history is that war is not a rare or random occurrence that can be wished away by those of us who love peace. In the years since our nation's founding, no American has reached their 50th birthday without having lived through at least two major U.S. wars.

 

The best ally of peace is a strong America, an America with unparalleled strength and resolve, an America fully engaged in every imaginable effort to pursue peace, and an America committed to lead others toward liberty. As Ronald Reagan once said, "I have seen four wars during my lifetime and none of them began because America was too strong."

 

This day marks the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War -- at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 88 years ago. Some claimed that World War I was "the war to end all wars," but they had forgotten the lessons of history. General Douglas MacArthur, himself a veteran of World War I, said that old soldiers never die, they just fade away. Almost all of the nearly 5 million American veterans of that war have faded away with General MacArthur.

 

But, astonishingly, there are two Massachusetts citizens, veterans of that awful conflict, who are alive today. Please hold your applause until I've introduced them both.

 

Antonio Pierro of Swampscott was an Army Private in the 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 82d Division. He fought in France at the battle of St. Michel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the final campaign of the war. If life is a journey, Private Pierro's life is an expedition: He was born in 1896 in a small town in Italy. What a long way he has traveled: from the 19th Century to the 21st; from a mountaintop village in Italy to Swampscott, Massachusetts.

 

Russell Buchanan, of Watertown, tried to join the Marines to fight in World War One, but he was turned down. He turned to the Navy, but at 115 pounds, he didn't weigh enough to meet the Navy's 118-pound cutoff. So he worked hard, gained the extra three pounds, and joined the Navy in July of 1918. His duty to serve didn't end there either: sensing that America would soon enter World War II, he enlisted again, 10 months before Pearl Harbor. This time he joined the Army, where he served as a technical sergeant and was sent to Europe as a member of 26th Yankee Division of General George Patton's 3d Army.

 

Gentleman, will you please stand so that we may recognize you? (Long applause)

 

There is a great continuous chain of service, linking every American generation – past, present, and future – through love of this country and all that it stands for. Every veteran is a link in that chain. They are the senior members in the half-a-million strong group of proud military veterans in our Commonwealth.

 

Recognition takes on many forms. We have our disagreements in politics, but making sure that our veterans are honored and appreciated is one issue that all but erases party differences. I'd like to thank the legislature for working with me to enact important measures like the Welcome Home Bill to help ensure that Massachusetts veterans and Guard personnel receive the benefits they deserve.

 

But none of that ever balances the scale: there is nothing that we can do to match our gratitude for the men and women who risk everything they have to defend this nation. America will always be producing veterans, as long as there are people outside our borders who hate freedom and people inside them who love it.