Archive [December 1999]

I was invited to be the main speaker, as well as grand marshal of the Veterans Day Parade in St. Louis on Nov. 6. Next day, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch read: “THANKS TO RUSH, THE TURNOUT DOWNTOWN AT THIS YEAR’S VETERANS DAY PARADE IS ENTHUSIASTIC AND MUCH LARGER.”

How many of you out there are veterans? You can make more noise — let’s hear you. Because I am here for one reason today. I’m here to honor you. Everything I say today is not to everybody. It will be loved and accepted by everybody, but it’s aimed at veterans.

I understand that before I arrived there’s been a controversy over my selection as speaker today. There hasn’t been? Here’s what I would say: there’s no controversy, because everybody agrees with me! But, ladies and gentlemen, the point of it is, I think, that it ought to be non-veterans. My parents raised me to say, “Thank you” to people who did things for other people. And that’s what this is. It’s a simple thank you to all of you veterans who sacrificed your lives so we could be free.

[Voice in crowd refers to Bill Clinton.] I’m not going to reduce the dignity of the event by mentioning his name.

Some of you have heard this, but please indulge me because it serves as an opening for the ultimate points I wish to make today. When I was first starting my radio program, I was traveling all over the country doing speaking engagements. And one of the places that I decided to go was Fayetteville, North Carolina. I went wherever there was a stage and that would take my program. And one of the parts of that trip to Fayetteville was a trip to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Somebody said, “Would you like to go see Special Forces?” And I said, “You mean Delta?” “No, Delta doesn’t exist.” I said, “Oh, okay.”

They took me to Special Forces and, my friends, you think today is hot, it was 102 that day. It was in the middle of July. And they flew me out to the Special Forces camp where the people who were just trying out, to see if they had what it took to be in Special Forces, were being put through the physical rigors.

I was met by a man named Sergeant Major Ivanov. I weighed about 340 pounds when I got off the plane. And Sergeant Major Ivanov of course, is a man of steel and 180 pounds. You could smell his cologne — he’s not sweating at all in that heat. And I’m getting off with my jacket off. He welcomes me and greets me, and introduces me to some people. He says, “Would you like any questions after the briefing on what happens here?” I said. “Sergeant Major, I need some help.”

“What is it?”

“Sergeant Major, what’s your reaction — what should I say to people who call my program and say that you and the military are just a bunch of Rambos who love keeping your guns, but you don’t care about anything else?”

He stared at me with steely eyes, like, “Who in the heck is this, and why is he here?”

He said, “I want you to ask the soldiers.”

I said, “No, you don’t need to do that. Don’t misunderstand. I’m trying to get some help from you. This is what people around America think, that the military’s just a bunch of shoot-em-up robotic people.”

“I will not tolerate that language in this hut. Follow me, sir, we’re going to see the soldiers.”

I was praying that the soldiers thought that I might be General Limbaugh from the Pentagon. So, I meet a bunch of soldiers. These people have just finished running. They are worn out. They’re sitting. And Sergeant Major Ivanov makes me talk to them. “You ask them why they’re here. I want you to leave here knowing why they’re here.”

So, I asked them why they were here.

And without exception, each one of them said: “I’m here because this is where you come in the United States of America if you want to be the best at what the U.S. military does. And I want to find out if I’ve got what it takes.”

I said, “Sergeant Major, did you tell them to say this?”

“These men are not programmed robots as you suggested earlier. These are individual men. They are soldiers, and they want to serve in the greatest fighting force the world has ever known. And by the time that you leave here, Mr. Limbaugh, you’re going to understand that.” I said, “I already know it! You misunderstand. I’m just trying to get some help with my question.”

Somebody took me aside as we were leaving, one of the Sergeant Major’s aides, and said. “Mr. Limbaugh, you’ve got to understand…” Shortly before this day, the liberation of some nuns in a hotel in El Salvador by American Special Forces took place. And this guy escorting me back to the helicopter said, “The Sergeant Major went in and got those people out. That’s why he reacted the way he did.”

It remains for me one of the most informative and eye-opening experiences that I have had. And as a result, it confirmed thoughts that I’ve always had all my life about the U.S. military.

If you would visit my grandparents’ home in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the first thing you’d see when you walked in the front door was a picture of their sons in full dress military uniform. My dad in the Army Air Corps, my uncle, Steven Limbaugh, in the Navy’s uniform, my uncle Manley wearing the uniform of his branch, and one of our cousins. They were proud of their sons and nephew that had served in the military.

It was always around us. My father regaled me constantly with stories of flying P-51s in the China-Burma theater of World War II. I said, “Father, did you ever shoot anyone down?” To this day, I don’t know because he didn’t want to talk about that aspect of it.

But the military is something that’s always been near and dear to me, part of everybody that I’ve been close to. And I’m as honored as I can be to have been selected to speak to you here today.

It’s humbling to be asked to address members of the greatest fighting force the world has ever produced and has ever seen. I have to tell you, it is my sincere belief — and though many of you probably agree, there may be some who disagree, but we need to think about it nevertheless — that for roughly the past half-century, we Americans have lost our moorings. We have scorned Western civilization. We have betrayed this unique American heritage, mocked our forefathers and the gift of freedom that they bestowed upon us, and for which many of them gave their lives.

I believe, and I’ve said this before on my program to large audiences, that too many of us from my generation and generations following, are so removed from the historical struggle that these men right here went through, a historical struggle that many of you have gone through.

They take for granted the freedom they wake up with everyday. It’s never been threatened while they’re alive. It might have been challenged in the Gulf War, but that was quickly repelled. Critics say, “It was simply a war over oil.” As if oil is not worth fighting for! Oil, of course, is the fuel of the engine of freedom. And in the hands of the wrong people, you and I lose what we have.

The fact is, I have never ceased to be amazed at the volunteer force. I don’t know if many of those who volunteer ever expect to actually get called to combat when they volunteer for the U.S. military today — well, I should say before seven or eight years ago. Now, like I’ve never seen it, assets are being reduced, and we’re deploying the military in far-ranging places to engage in social experiments and Meals-on-Wheels distribution programs. That’s not the purpose of the United States military. It’s not.

We heard a song about peace a moment ago, a beautiful song originally sung by Bette Midler. But peace is not achieved through singing songs and holding hands and spreading doctors and nurses around the world. Peace is achieved through the moral and honorable projection of force for the liberation of the oppressed around the world.

Who could not, when asked, agree to honor the people who have engaged in that effort to bring liberty and freedom, not only to the people of this country, but, when assigned, to liberate the oppressed and restore liberty and freedom around the world? It’s an achievement that no nation in the history of the world has accomplished prior to the greatest fighting force in the history of mankind in the United States of America.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, the irony of a free society — and we are the essence of a free society, despite the fact that so many people alive today take it for granted — the irony of free societies is that the freer they are, the more vulnerable they are to losing that freedom. Because we are a free society, we allow enemies to roam among us — and not just political enemies.

I used to live in New York. All you’ve got to do is declare political asylum from some country that may be an enemy to the United States and by law, you’re in. Which may give you a chance to blow up the World Trade Center. This is the price we pay for freedom, allowing enemies to roam among us.

We live in a dangerous world; not enough people are willing to recognize that. They want to hold hands and sing “Kum By Ya.” and wish it away through harmonic convergence. But it doesn’t work, ladies and gentlemen, not at all. We must always remain prepared to project the force and the power necessary to maintain and secure our freedoms.

I’m not the only person to address this today. But because of our fundamental underappreciation of our freedoms, we also fail to fully comprehend the profound sacrifices made by those who have offered — and in too many cases, given — their lives to make this freedom that we all enjoy possible. It is not only enormously unfair to all of you who have served and your valued predecessors in the armed services, but it’s suicidal for us as a nation to be ignorant of these historical and ongoing sacrifices.

And yet, too often, there is way too much ignorance in the schools of America, not just about the past military, but about the past — period. It is something that needs to be rectified immediately. The history of this country is worth telling.

You in the military are so often taken for granted, and so grossly under-appreciated. You are part of the greatest fighting machine in the history of the world. But unlike the armed forces of world empires, you are not an imperialistic force seeking to subjugate the people of other nations under the domain of the United States. Rather, you fight to defend our liberties and to liberate those around the world who do not enjoy it.

All of you, each and every one of you, if you are a veteran, are heroes. You are heroes because it is your sacrifice to the service of your nation, your dedication to country, your knowledge that it’s important, your guts and determination to do so, that enables the rest of us to enjoy the sunshine on a day like this and laugh about things. Whether I should wear a jacket.

The United States military, in my mind, truly does represent everything that is great about America. If you want to be the best at what you do, there’s a place in the military to do it. If you do not know what you want to do and if your life is aimless, call one of these men in uniform and they’ll straighten you out real quick. And you’ll get meaning and substance in your life.

So, from the bottom of my heart, and I’m sure all of those who are here who have not served, from the depths of our very being and from our souls, thank you so much, all of you. And may God richly bless you. Thank you for the honor of being here today.