WEBVTT 00:02.000 --> 00:04.966 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: Kevin Powers signed up for the Army before finishing high school and went 00:04.966 --> 00:07.933 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% to basic training the day after he graduated. 00:07.933 --> 00:10.500 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% He was in Iraq for a year. 00:10.500 --> 00:14.266 align:left position:10%,start line:71% size:80% And when he returned home, he managed to some of what that experience was like in his critically 00:14.266 --> 00:16.633 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% praised novel "The Yellow Birds." 00:16.633 --> 00:21.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Powers says it's hard to record what you are truly thinking and feeling in combat because, 00:21.233 --> 00:23.766 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% in many ways, you aren't doing either. 00:23.766 --> 00:26.900 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% Much of the fighting happens on instinct and adrenaline. 00:26.900 --> 00:31.533 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% That's the situation so many Americans still face and, in Powers' Humble Opinion, what 00:31.533 --> 00:33.700 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% we need to remember tonight. 00:33.700 --> 00:37.200 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% KEVIN POWERS, Author, "A Shout in the Ruins": If you're watching this today, perhaps you're 00:37.200 --> 00:42.066 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% taking a break from a family barbecue, or maybe you have just returned from shopping 00:42.066 --> 00:46.566 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% for some much needed item that this weekend's sales have allowed you to purchase. 00:46.566 --> 00:51.533 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% I hope the extra time with your loved ones is rewarding, and the long weekend a satisfying 00:53.000 --> 00:56.933 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% break from the challenges of work, or school, or parenting. 00:58.166 --> 01:00.300 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% But I humbly ask you to consider the following. 01:00.300 --> 01:04.933 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Fourteen years ago, I spent Memorial Day looking for IEDs in and around the city of Mosul, 01:05.733 --> 01:07.233 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% Iraq. 01:07.233 --> 01:09.766 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% I had only been in country for a couple of months. 01:09.766 --> 01:12.466 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% My unit had not yet suffered its first casualty. 01:12.466 --> 01:17.466 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% But, as summer began, the purple fingers of Iraqi citizens casting their votes felt like 01:18.600 --> 01:21.066 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% a cause worth facing that danger for. 01:21.066 --> 01:24.233 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% But, soon enough, something shifted. 01:24.233 --> 01:28.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Attacks increased in both intensity and frequency over the summer. 01:28.233 --> 01:33.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% And by the time autumn came around, several members of my company had been wounded, some 01:35.200 --> 01:39.133 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% seriously, and some terrifyingly so, especially when you knew you had to go back outside the 01:40.433 --> 01:42.200 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% wire again the next day. 01:42.200 --> 01:46.566 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% I will admit, I was scared pretty much all of the time. 01:46.566 --> 01:51.333 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% But I did my job to the best of my ability, and I still believed that we might all make 01:51.333 --> 01:53.366 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% it home together. 01:53.366 --> 01:55.666 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% But that's not how war goes. 01:55.666 --> 02:00.633 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Close to Christmas, as 2004 was coming to a close, our unit lost two young men. 02:02.433 --> 02:06.933 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% Their names were Sergeants Nicholas Mason and David Ruhren. 02:06.933 --> 02:08.933 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% They were both 20 years old. 02:08.933 --> 02:13.900 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% I grieved for them and their families then, and I still grieve for them today. 02:15.866 --> 02:20.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% And I would ask you to consider the fact that since our current wars began in 2001, as of 02:21.633 --> 02:26.100 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% mid-May, there have been 6,957 others to grieve for. 02:28.033 --> 02:32.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Just a month ago, a young man from Colorado was killed in Afghanistan. 02:32.233 --> 02:37.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% It's hard to believe that, when I came home from Iraq in 2005, he was 9 years old. 02:39.200 --> 02:43.166 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% So, today, I would ask you to take a moment to ask, how many more names might be added 02:45.133 --> 02:49.533 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% to the long list of those we will be asked to remember next year, and to also remember 02:51.466 --> 02:55.933 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% the thousands of veterans, actively serving men and women, and grieving families, their 02:57.933 --> 03:01.966 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% fallen brothers and sisters, for whom Memorial Day doesn't just fall on the last Monday in 03:03.433 --> 03:07.733 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% May, but on every single day of the rest of their lives.