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San Diego, California September 25-28, 2011<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Shakespeare’s Henry V called his soldiers “We Band of Brothers.”\u00a0 After almost seven decades of association that seems an appropriate designation for us.\u00a0 There is a mystic bond of brotherhood that binds us.\u00a0 We meet for the last time at the rim of the Pacific.\u00a0 Sixty-seven years ago a few of us here today mustered at the other rim of the Pacific.\u00a0 We began on the steamy, humid island of Luzan at the end of a war.\u00a0 A few of us here today remember the deactivation of the unit in the middle of another war on the rocky barren Korean peninsula.\u00a0 Most of us here today recall the interim years when we volunteers bearing arms in the service of our Republic and our General.\u00a0 We were young, tall, slender and green as grass.\u00a0 Whether that service was at the Atsugi quartermaster depot or required parachuting on to the Rock to retake Corregidor’, each of us served where he was asked–honorably.\u00a0 <\/span>Entitlements and benefits flowed from that service.\u00a0 We used the 52\/20 Club for beer and beach.\u00a0 The G.I. Bill to pay for taxidermy school or loan to buy a 5 grand tract home.\u00a0 The V.A. gave me a hearing aid that cost more than my pay for my tour of duty.\u00a0 But an unexpected entitlement arose from our service, the Honor Guard Association.\u00a0 The camaraderie espirit de corps, the friendship and spiritual affinity we call brotherhood that continued for the decades after our discharge.\u00a0 From randomly selected diverse individuals the Honor Guard Company evolved into an almost DNA compatible group.\u00a0 We matured and with our families met together all over this great nation.\u00a0 From Norfolk to San Francisco, from Rochester to San Diego, we mustered in St. Louis, Nashville, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Branson, and Las Vegas, a great one in San Antonio and an almost one in New Orleans.\u00a0 The audible of each cities name evokes memories of the light of those days we shared.\u00a0 We look backward at these yesterdays with a smile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It is with profound sadness that we strike our colors and go not so gently into the night, but our Republic has never endured a night without a dawn, so our children unfurl the same flag, (With more stars), that we proudly bore in foreign lands.\u00a0 Other generations of volunteer soldiers will continue that duty we accepted and passed on.<\/p>\n We are hobbled octogenarians with growing infirmities.\u00a0 We have the pleasure of recall, that as exuberant young men with hearts touched by fire, we were, in a small way, participants in the long distinguished military history of this nation.\u00a0 That tradition of excellence extends before the Declaration of Independence with volunteer militias.<\/p>\n The first regular Continental Army volunteers enlisted for one year only and were billeted at Valley Forge.\u00a0 You recall from our Philadelphia reunion that their barracks were a lot less comfortable than the American Embassy.\u00a0 It was Christmas time and the Continentals had been defeated at Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.\u00a0 Their enlistment was up on New Years Day.\u00a0 These short-time volunteers won a victory at Trenton on Christmas day, and were inspired to continue their service to the Republic which then allowed us to serve and pass on to other volunteers opportunity of service.<\/p>\n I am privileged to have known and to have served with you.<\/p>\n \n Final General MacArthur Honor Guard Reunion San Diego, California September 25-28, 2011 \u00a0James Jess’s farewell speech, closing the last reunion of the Honor Guard. Shakespeare’s Henry V called his soldiers “We Band of Brothers.”\u00a0 After almost seven decades of association that seems an appropriate designation for us.\u00a0 There is a mystic bond of brotherhood that … Continue reading San Diego Reunion 2011 – Farewell Speech<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":367,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1736","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1736"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1798,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1736\/revisions\/1798"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a0James Jess’s farewell speech, closing the last reunion of the Honor Guard.
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\n<\/span><\/h3>\n\n<\/div>\nPatricia told me our ages range from 81 – 94 years old.\u00a0 many of us are older now than our venerable General who lived only 84 years.\u00a0 He was not of an age, but for all time.\u00a0 Fortunately General MacArthur’s replica, our chairman Dave Valley is eternal.\u00a0 Our founder, Bob Marco started the Association to have a beer bust with his squad from the finance building and it grew into an entity with an agenda and auxiliaries.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"