{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ContentRecord_id=8a9c5979-7566-48e1-a241-4f88205efaa6", "Senator Hatch Remarks as Prepared for Taylorsville Veterans Day Program", "2014-11-12", "2014", "2014-11", "Republican", "House", "UT", "Orrin Hatch", "H000338", "www.hatch.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. Senator Hatch delivered the following remarks at the Taylorsville Veterans Day program yesterday:\r\nIt is a great privilege to be with you today for the Taylorsville City Veterans Day Celebration.\u00a0 I hope you all enjoyed the great veteran\u2019s parade.\u00a0 I want to thank the two Grand Marshals of the parade: Jill Atwood, who served seven years in the National Guard, including a tour in Saudi Arabia; and Valentina Paddock who served in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War.\u00a0 These two women represent the dedication and ideals of the United States Military with dignity and grace.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nI also want to thank Mayor Larry Johnson who has organized and conducted such a wonderful Veteran\u2019s Day program.\u00a0 Thank you for your dedicated service to Taylorsville City and the wonderful state of Utah.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nWhile driving to Taylorsville City Hall today, I was greeted -- like all of you -- by a magnificent sight:\u00a0 the flags of honor that have been set up and flown to represent Utah\u2019s fallen soldiers from recent conflicts.\u00a0 What a wonderful memorial to our fallen heroes who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom!\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nWe are here today to pay tribute to our nation\u2019s veterans.\u00a0 However, I also want to honor the family members who are left at home to keep families and day-to-day life moving forward.\u00a0 Your sacrifices will never be overlooked or forgotten.\u00a0 Thank you for the support you give to the men and women who wear our nation\u2019s uniform.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nI know that all of you spouses, or significant others of veterans would never treat a veteran as badly as Becky treated Ricky, a Marine stationed in Afghanistan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She wrote him what some call a \u201cDear John\u201d letter that stated:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nDear Ricky,\r\nI can no longer continue our relationship.\u00a0 The distance between us is just too great.\u00a0 I must admit that I have cheated on you twice, since you\u2019ve been gone, and it\u2019s not fair to either of us.\u00a0 I\u2019m, sorry.\u00a0 Please return the picture of me that I sent to you.\r\nLove,\u00a0\r\nBecky\u00a0\u00a0\r\nWith hurt feelings, the Marine asked his fellow soldiers for any snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, aunts, cousins, etc.\u00a0 In addition to the picture of Becky, Ricky included all the other pictures of the pretty gals he had collected from his buddies.\u00a0 There were 57 photos in that envelope. . . .along with this note:\r\nDear Becky,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nI\u2019m so sorry, but I can\u2019t quite remember who you are.\u00a0 Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nTake care,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nRicky\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nIt truly is a great honor for me to join with you in honoring our veterans who have given us so much and paid so dearly to protect our liberties and the American way of life.\r\nAs demonstrated by the veterans here today -- as well as by the blood and sacrifice of many Americans throughout our nation\u2019s history -- our sacred liberty and way of life are worth defending. And as I stand here before you, my heart is not only with those fallen heroes and veterans who have passed away, but also with our brave service members today who are following in their footsteps in faraway lands. \u00a0\r\nIn President Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Gettysburg Address, he said:\u00a0 \u201cOur fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal\u201d\r\nFrom the earliest days of conflict to the present, more than 1.3 million Americans have paid the ultimate sacrifice to, as Lincoln put it, test \u201cwhether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure.\u201d Today, thanks to the sacrifices of our veterans, America not only endures but inspires heads and hearts across the globe with a love of freedom and liberty.\r\nThat\u2019s why, in my service to our beloved state and nation, I feel it an honor and sacred duty to pay homage to them at every opportunity \u2013 on Civil War battlefields such as Antietam and Gettysburg; at the memorials on the National Mall in Washington; and at wonderful monuments like the one erected here.\u00a0 I regard these places as sacred ground.\r\nOf all the solemn memorials in our nation\u2019s capital, perhaps none gives more pause for gratitude and reflection than Arlington Cemetery\u2019s the Tomb of the Unknowns \u2013 more commonly referred to as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I\u2019m particularly moved by the inscription on its western panel: \u201cHere rests in glory an American soldier known but to God.\u201d\r\nSince the soldiers represented at the memorial are not identified, they have to come to symbolize all our brave service members who have given their lives for our freedom. They signify that America\u2019s fallen heroes may be gone, but they will never be forgotten.\r\nJust as God has not forgotten these soldiers, neither should we forget the sacrifices they made to preserve our liberty.\r\nIn the Hatch household we honor my older brother Jess, a nose gunner in a B-24 Liberator who was killed in action during World War II. \u00a0I idolized him as a boy, and I still do. Losing him has made me more fully appreciate the incredible sacrifices made by our veterans and their families, including so many here in Utah. I am profoundly grateful to each and every one of them \u2013 for their example, service, and courage.\r\nIn 1991, while sitting in the Atlanta Airport, I wrote an elegy in honor of my brother Jess, entitled very simply: \u201cVeteran\u2019s Day.\u201d\u00a0 I would like to share it with you today.\r\nAlmost 40 years ago\r\nMy only brother died\r\nWe know not how,\r\nBut it must have been badly,\r\nFor one member of his crew\r\nReturned, unspeaking\r\nNever to talk again.\r\nAbout the awful end\r\nWhich laid my brother down,\r\n\u2018Till brought home again\r\nEncased in metal\r\nNo longer to be seen,\r\nOr touched, or loved\r\nExcept in absentia\r\nFor future time\r\nGod provides,\r\nTo those who hope,\r\nWho pray;\r\nWho never go away.\r\nIn spite of death\r\nI used to visit his grave,\r\nAnd wait and pray,\r\nAnd wait some more,\r\nAs though I might hear\r\nA voice from the grave,\r\nOr at least sounds from there\r\nTo me, to my soul,\r\nWhich worries so,\r\n\u00a0About my brother Jess.\r\nIt falls on every American -- including all of us here today \u2013 to take up Lincoln\u2019s charge and dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us\u2014that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion\u2014that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain\u2014that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom\u2014and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.\u201d\u00a0\r\nWe all must continue the fight for freedom.\r\nLast Sunday marked the 25th Anniversary of one of the most remarkable days in modern history that so poignantly represents the ultimate gift and desire for freedom \u2013 the collapse of the Berlin Wall. As we all observed news footage and old photos from that momentous day, my soul was filled with gratitude and appreciation for America and what it represents to the entire world.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\r\nSo on this Veteran\u2019s Day, it is important to remember that through the dedicated service of our military, tyranny and threats are diminished, while freedom grows stronger.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nAnd as President Reagan so famously stated, \u201cWe will always remember.\u00a0 We will always be proud.\u00a0 We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.\u201d\r\nThank you again for the honor of joining with you today.\u00a0 May God continue to bless you, and our beloved state and nation.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ContentRecord_id=8a9c5979-7566-48e1-a241-4f88205efaa6"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9536949694156647, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}