At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 the guns fell silent on European battlefields echoing the cease fire agreement struck by the Allied Nations and German forces, effectively ending World War I. One year later on November 11, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed and commemorated the first Armistice Day. President Eisenhower in 1954 reestablished the day as Veterans Day in order to pay respect to all veterans of all wars. Thus, began an annual tradition through which the public recognizes and honors the service and sacrifice of all the men and women who have worn the uniform in defense of this nation.

November 11, 2005, marks another Veterans Day and provides an opportunity to express our collective gratitude and appreciation for life’s liberties and privileges, for these are the true gifts that our veterans and military families have selflessly provided to us -- sadly, many doing so without ever reaping the full benefits for which they fought. This Veterans Day will hold additional importance as this year also marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Veterans’ Administration, now the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Congress commemorated this milestone through resolutions recognizing VA’s activities, reaffirming our commitment to its mission and praising its dedicated employees.

I am proud of the VA and the generous benefits and health care services that this grateful nation provides to our veterans and their families. I am, however, also concerned that if we do not continue to remain vigilant in support of the VA, its employees, its mission, and most importantly its beneficiaries -- the veterans and dependents it serves -- then we may fail to uphold a sacred commitment, best articulated by President Abraham Lincoln in his second Inaugural Address in 1865, "...to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan..." I can think of nothing more shameful than to fail in this great endeavor by turning a blind eye to the men and women who have defended us so well, when they may need us the most.

Unquestionably, difficult choices are before the public and Congress with respect to the nation’s budget priorities, but I for one am no summer soldier, nor sunshine patriot, and neither do I suspect are the majority of Americans. Let us live up to our calling as a great and grateful nation and never shrink from our duty to care for America’s defenders. The more than one million servicemembers who have died in defense of this nation, including now more than 2,000 from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, deserve no less. We must always remember that we honor their memories by taking care of their comrades in arms.

As another "eleventh hour" approaches, and we once again gather to commemorate the sacrifices of the men and women who served in defense of freedom, let us redouble our efforts to honor their service beyond mere words and passing celebrations. Indeed, let us honor them through action and tangible assistance. The VA health care (many have called the VA a ‘model’ health care system), benefits and national cemetery systems are too valuable and have come too far to let our guard down now. As good conscience and tangible assistance require, we must insist that the VA receive the necessary resources to deliver its services and maintain its status as a premier health care system and benefits provider.

In the end, I sincerely believe our primary duty as citizens of this great nation is to secure the liberties delivered by those who came before us and to pass along those same liberties, undiminished, to those who in the coming generations will heed the call for military service. Clearly, this challenge to pass the fruits of liberty from one generation to the next has been met by our veterans and current servicemembers. Now, let us honor and recognize their service by providing our nations’ heroes the respect, benefits and services they have earned.