One of the 200 Jewish-American soldiers who was saved that fateful day is Staff Sergeant Lester Tanner. Lester is now 96 years old — (applause) — and he joins us here. Boy, you guys are looking very good. Ninety-six. Lester — you’re really 96, Lester? I don’t believe it. You’re looking good. Thank you very much. Thank you also for your very noble service and for sharing this incredible story with the world. Thank you very much, Lester.
The men and women who have donned our nation’s uniforms are the bravest, toughest, strongest, and most virtuous warriors ever to walk on Earth.
You left your families and fought in faraway lands. You came face-to-face with evil and you did not back down. You returned home from war, and you never forgot your friends who didn’t return, including prisoners of war and those missing in action. Every day, you think of them and pray for them. But your greatest tribute of all is the way you lived your lives in the years since. You raised your families, you endured the wounds of war, and you endured the pains of that memory. Yet, you keep going, you keep serving, you keep giving, and you keep loving. You volunteer at your local veterans post, and you keep in touch with your battle comrades. You support our Gold Star Families, you take care of our wounded warriors, and you stand alongside of our service members when they return from war.
How did the audience react to Trump?
From my friend’s father who was a Korean War Veteran:
This United States Marine
It was his first night in Korea,
The stars were bright and clean;
The very first night of combat,
For this United States Marine.
The moon was high above the mountains
And glistened on the snow
That covered the rocky hillside
And the valley down below.
Then he heard their bugles loud and clear
That echoed through the night;
He saw the rocks turn into men
And he held his rifle tight.
The flares lit up the valley
And he saw the quilted men;
He raised and fired his rifle once,
And then fired it once again.
The human wave came up the hill,
Each step brought them higher;
They seemed to take no heed at all
To the land mines and barbed wire.
He fought them hand-to-hand
With knife and bayonet
Until the ground around his feet
Was dark and red and wet.
He drove them from the bunkers
Till up they came no more,
And twisted, quilted bodies lay
Upon the valley floor.
He stood there silently and looked
At sights he’d never seen;
He had held his ground against all odds,
This United States Marine
Mitch Stovall - USMC