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> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> November 7, 2007

**Wear Your Medals on Veterans Day: Mansfield**

***"Veterans Pride Initiative" Shows Support for Service Members***

> WASHINGTON -- For veterans to show their support of the U.S. military,
> especially for the men and women serving overseas in the Global War on
> Terrorism, Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon H. Mansfield
> called on the nation's 24 million veterans to wear their military
> decorations on Veterans Day.
>
> \"By wearing our decorations, we show the world the unity of our
> support for the U.S. armed forces and our pride in the men and women
> serving today on the frontlines of freedom," said Mansfield, a
> decorated and wounded combat veteran of the Vietnam War. "We also
> teach the meaning and the value of military service to the children of
> America."
>
> Former Secretary Jim Nicholson, launched the \"Veterans Pride
> Initiative" a year ago, urging veterans to pin on their decorations
> for Veterans Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and other patriotic
> holidays and events.
>
> Additional information about the initiative can be found at VA\'s Web
> site at <http://www.va.gov/veteranspride>. The site includes
> information about how veterans can replace lost medals or confirm the
> decorations to which they are entitled.
>
> Mansfield is scheduled to take part in the national observance of
> Veterans Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National
> Cemetery on Sunday, Nov. 11. Most of the 125 national cemeteries
> operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and many of the
> Department's 153 hospitals will be holding their own observances.
>
> Originally conceived to mark the end of World War I in 1918 -- when an
> armistice for "the war to end all wars" began on the 11^th^ hour of
> the 11^th^ day of the 11^th^ month -- Veterans Day now honors the
> service of everyone who served in the U.S. military.
>
> [Attached is Acting Secretary Mansfield's Veterans Day
> message.]{.underline}

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**A Veterans Day Message**

**From the Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs**

**Gordon H. Mansfield**

> On this Veterans Day 2007, we come together as a Nation to thank our
> veterans for their service and to let them know that their service and
> sacrifices will never be taken for granted.
>
> Americans are blessed to live in a Nation of democracy and freedom.
> For these blessings we thank our veterans. Here and in communities
> across this great country, we honor veterans for protecting and
> securing democracy and freedom throughout our history.
>
> Veterans are everyday men and women we know as friends, neighbors,
> relatives and colleagues who have served our Nation in extraordinary
> ways. They have preserved and strengthened our country and made
> sacrifices beyond duty's call. Even as we honor them this Veterans
> Day, their successors are courageously defending our freedoms at home
> and abroad. Veterans and their families are truly among our finest
> citizens.
>
> At the Department of Veterans Affairs, we are proud to fulfill the
> solemn pledge of President Abraham Lincoln, who during his second
> inaugural address on March 4, 1865, set forth our obligation to care
> for those injured in body and spirit in their defense of our Nation
> and for the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The VA
> and the over quarter-million men and women serving in it give daily
> endorsement of President Lincoln's commitment, and do so in a spirit
> of compassion, respect, sensitivity and gratitude. Let us today,
> therefore, remember Lincoln's charge to us:
>
> *"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the*
>
> *right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
> the*
>
> *work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who*
>
> *shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to*
>
> *do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace,*
>
> *among ourselves, and with all nations."*

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