good morning everyone good morning everyone thank you very much for coming this morning it is brutally hot day we're not going to have a very long program but we are going to have a meaningful program and certainly appreciate the time and effort that we've all me you made to come here today in honor of those purple heart recipient that live with that activity on the program our recipients that are no longer with us and we certainly do appreciate this sacrifice and the sacrifice of their family members if you will they can ask you to please remain standing as i lead us in the national anthem the pledge of allegiance i'm sorry i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states to the response of which it stands one nation i would like to take a moment i would like to take a moment to recognize both some of those in the audience i may not hit everybody that i should but i certainly want to recognize a purple heart recipients that are with us today as well as family members of those purple heart sage physical church here in beaumont and also the chaplain at mass joint force headquarters mass army national guard at this time i would like to invite colonel minor to come up and  blessing god we our hearts are filled with gratitude as we think of that long line who has received the purple heart before that the medal of merit we thank and praise you for their sacrifice we remember those who love support them we pray for those who heal in heart and mind and body we pray with thankfulness for those who have a story to tell of post traumatic group be with us now as we commemorate as we remember as we celebrate with grateful hearts give us an abiding sense of your presence we pray these things for the sake of your love  once again i would like to thank you for coming here this morning this is the two thousand eight hundred time to belmont purple heart observation a recognition ceremony of course but back in december two thousand and fifteen the town of belmont proclaimed itself cyprian's the town on has all of our veterans and their families and fully supports the need to validate our brave men and women of the forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice suffered injury at the hands of the enemy during combat selectmen offer a few words and also to introduce i guess speak waiting in iraq your brave americans have done just that today we pause and recognize those who sacrificed health and life for the american ideals of liberty and unity those preserve those values they sacrifice thanks to our political leadership who is here today for our veterans organizations in this town and i want to acknowledge those who mourn and grieve those who receive the purple heart those perhaps who earned it and did not receive it for some reason the army chaplains core competencies are three the st is to nurture the living to care for the wounded is the nd and the rd is to honor the dead that includes that memorial services and also doing death notifications in massachusetts because there is not a major army facility the national guard handles the casualty work for the active duty army as well and as a result of that i have served on over a one hundred and twenty death notification teams i've been with the wounded i've lost friends and acquaintances to war as many of you have many gathered here know much more than i do about the purple heart and some no doubt bear the marks and your bodies so let's be clear what we're talking about when we refer to the purple heart the purple heart is awarded in the name of the president of the united states to any member of the armed forces of the united states who while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the us armed services after april  hundred has been wounded or killed a specific examples of services which warrant the purple heart include any action against an enemy of the united states any action with an opposing armed force of a foreign country in which the armed forces of the united states or or have been engaged while serving with friendly forming forces engaged in an armed conflict against an imposing armed force and which the united states is not a belligerent party or as a result of an act of any such enemy or opposing armed forces or as the result of any act of any hostile foreign force enemy related injuries which justify the award of the purple heart include injury caused by enemy bullet shrapnel or other projectile created by enemy action injury caused by an enemy placed landmine naval mine or trap injury caused by enemy released chemical biological or nuclear agent injury caused by vehicle or aircraft accident resulting from enemy fire and concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions injury or wounds which  qualify for the award of the purple heart include frostbite or trench foot injuries heat stroke so no warrants are going today food poisoning not caused by enemy agents chemical biological or nuclear agents not released by the enemy battle fatigue disease not directly caused by enemy agents accidents to include explosive aircraft we hit killer and other accidental wounding not related to or caused by enemy action self inflicted wounds except when in the heat of battle and not involving gross negligence posttraumatic stress disorders and jump injuries not caused by enemy action all of that is to say that this award is about primarily visible wounds of combat and about combat death it is about visible physical wounds and about dea and so what is striking is that this gathering this morning in the heat is a counter cultural gathering to recognize a counter cultural a war our culture does not like to dwell on pain and suffering and death it is depressing it is hard to publicly acknowledge pain suffering and death we like winners we like to pretend the death does not exist and so at the turn of the th century our houses here in the new england we call the front room the parlor the average life expectancy in one thousand nine hundred in this country was forty seven people were acquainted with death and suffering and then that parlor when people died they were laid out in our houses but we did something very intentional and think about this time saying how countercultural what we're doing today is we said no we're not going to call that room the parlor we're going to call it the living room we may def go away and then down the street we name that place the funeral parlor we've made death leave our lives people of faith struggle they struggle with pain and suffering and death because one of the assumptions is that god if god exist should be there to make sure that nothing bad happens to reasonably good people if i'm not a bank robber i have the right to a good life without pain or loss or suffering but despite all of this energy you and i know that pain and death is there the purple heart of that reality and if these bad things have not visited you yet i'm here to tell you sadly just wait a while some of us carry your stars that we can't see who's not eligible for a purple heart and we acknowledge your suffering we acknowledge that suffering there are some because of various reasons in large bureaucratic organizations with the military as an example of who were eligible and did not receive the award some who did receive it and feel that it was not deserved and they go through their whole life thinking oh they gave me this thing and i don't think i deserved it so we acknowledge all of that as well life including war can be messy but we gather here not just to acknowledge the reality of suffering hold out hope for those who still have breath we hold out hope for post traumatic growth post traumatic growth that is an affirmation that suffering does not always win and it's not me just trying to sound positive as a religious leader i hear the stories all the time and you have experienced this as well folks who go through bad things and then come out stronger more resilient more spiritually connected more compassionate some of have a purple heart have healed from wounds that we can see and those that we cannot and some have been made whole they did not wish for their  but having walked through it they came out the better this is their testimony this is their story and so i get frustrated with those who see us in uniform and veterans simply as victims as wounded and broken people that's not the whole story yes this does happen to some but many more have the story to tell stories of post traumatic growth growth that comes in through suffering while we remember those who received the purple heart and some who perhaps should have received it but never did for whatever reasons we want to remember not only their suffering and death but growth for some and also to remember those who cared for them and continue to care for them and love them those who support them and journey with them including those from veterans affairs we hear many stories of how terrible veterans affairs are but again having engaged so much with individuals and hearing their stories there are many that have positive stories about veterans affairs and so i i worry that we would keep people away from necessary healing and help by telling that story that it's a hopeless place to go there is a cloud of witnesses who we need to thank acknowledge today who have journeyed with these purple heart recipients and so i thank you for listening to my thoughts and for coming out today to engage in this countercultural activity of acknowledging suffering and death in the hope that wholeness and healing may follow thank you thank you very much gentlemen i appreciate your very meaningful awful words you know i sincerely appreciate you accepting the invitation to speak here today i always have great confidence in your words and the way you will express yourself and connect with our audience i am very proud to serve in this town of the best and service officer because of folks like yourself so committed to our veterans you know that the families in this town you know it really is in on a for me to serve and i do encourage as chaplain minus that those in the community or your family members that need assistance from the v a veterans services the mass department of veterans services please reach out to be i am in the hold the bomb and wesley chan is here this morning he's the director of the belmont health department and my boss i also want to certainly say thank you very much to direct the pitas to zero of the belmont public library when we initiated this program all having and as i say i am honored i am appreciative of most of you know today is national purple heart day and i do ask those in our audience that our purple heart recipient off family members of those to please identify yourself by either standing or raising your hand very very much you know john is one of many of the vietnam veterans that i've met here in town that i've come to know and understand and appreciate and now that i've raised the issue jim williams of the vietnam veteran very supportive of the program we are going to be having a vietnam veterans appreciation ceremony sometime in the springtime i believe it's going to be april it could in fact be may but you will learn more about that as we proceed but i will ask for your help to help me to identify the vietnam veterans living within our community and those who have served and maybe paid the ultimate price in sacrificing their lives so i thank you very much for taking the time to be with us here today i woke me to come downstairs we do have some refreshments and thank you very much