Speech At USS NC!

Apologies to those who've seen some of this before.  I used a past speech as a preview for a call to action, if you find my experiences on 091101 boring, just skip to the end.



Good morning!

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m John Byrnes.
It’s a beautiful morning outside here in North Carolina. Just more than  eleven years past , I can still remember a beautiful morning in NYC. The sun was out, it was a warm September day.

That day was an Election day in New York, primary day.  Like our coming election day, September 11, 2001 was to be a decisive day in history.

Eleven years ago, I was an adult student at Hunter College in upper Manhattan.  I had been an enlisted Marines in the 1990s, and in September of 2000 I joined the New York Army National Guard combining free tuition, with GI Bill payments. That Tuesday, after a
morning swim, I sat down early for a 9:10 Am class.

Moments later, fire engines, sirens wailing, began rolling outside the window. After a few minutes a young woman in the rear of the class room looked up fromher cell phone and said:

“ An airplane just hit the World Trade Center.”

And the world changed.

I’m hoping some of the folks who stand here were only children that day. You have grown up in a post 9-11 world. Some of you are veterans from a previous era.

It has been a different world.

My Armory was 2 miles downtown from Hunter College.

I jumped in a Taxi, the driver offered to take me over the bridge to Queens.

I showed him my Military ID and promised bodily harm if he didn’t get me to the Armory. I was one of the first soldiers from my company to arrive, but there were already a few soldiers standing guard, with Bayonets attached.

By 10 AM I was in uniform double timeing to Barnes and Noble, running against the Human current pushing north from lower Manhattan,  Civilians staring at me in fear and in awe.

Most of the first day was spent in frustrating formations, getting new head counts. Watching the events unfold, in horror, two miles away and feeling powerless.

Eventually as the sun went down my company moved out to help secure lower Manhattan. After we were posted in teams we took turns walking the last single block down to ground zero to view the devastation. It remains to this day the single most horrific sight I have ever seen. Even after three combat tours.

For the two weeks we stood a 12 hour shift every night, securing ground zero. By day we helped out with traffic management, crowd control, and the bucket brigades. I averaged only three or four hours of sleep. Almost every New Yorker lost friends, family, or acquaintances that day. Five of my school friends from Grade School, HS, or College, perished. Our armory became the family support center for families of the the nearly 3000 murdered NYers.
My platoon leader lost his sister, it took, a long time for him to accept the loss. Her funeral, weeks later was the saddest I have ever been to, as my unit’s shared grief focused on one woman.

We worried for comrades too. Like all Guard units we had a number of firefighters and police. While almost all the police in my unit chose to respond with the Guard, the firefighters all reported in to their fire companies that day.

When SSG Sean Goodridge, and Sgt Chris Engeldrum appeared on our lines wearing their bunker gear, our relief was overwhelming.

Chris Engeldrum died three years later in an IED attack in Baghdad, on November 29 2004, he was killed alongside Spc Wilfredo Urbina who stood next to me that morning when Chris “finally showed up.”
I don’t imagine there are many veterans here who don’t know the sense of grief from losing a battle buddy, if you don’t I hope you stay lucky.
Loss is now part of a soldier’s life, part of the fabric of being in a military family

We are losing more than buddies though.

Deployed in 2004 and 2008 I essentially lost the right to vote in a presidential election.  Twice the local BOE in Queens NY failed to send me a ballot and forced me to rely on the default federal ballot.

I recently got an email from a NC NG NCO who is deployed to Kuwait.  Today in 2012 he can’t get a ballot from NC.  The Army has been in Kuwait for 20 some odd years, and they haven’t figured out how to ensure soldiers there can vote?

It’s unacceptable.  Military leaders have, frankly pissed away, millions of dollars of money designated to help SM’s vote, and now they publicly fret over sequestration.  A concern BTW  I share. But come on!

Veterans are slowly losing access to benefits we earned, as the VA  lags and wait times for cases drags on past one year. Tricare is raising premiums on new retirees.

Eleven years after September 11th we veterans and military are in danger of losing ourselves.  I was proud, and thankful that day that I had a role, that I was already in the military and could play a part.

Today I am concerned,
Veterans need to speak, united where possible, in one voice.

There are some things we can all agree on.  America needs a strong National Security policy.  This must be founded upon a sound economy.  America must stand up for her military assigned overseas, ensuring their vote counts.

And America must stand by those who have served.  Veterans and retiree benefits are not entitlements.  They are offsets to the opportunities that Veterans opted to forego, to serve our country.




We can and must hold our leaders accountable.  Let’s show them what that looks like.  Veterans have to get out and vote.  They have to be seen voting.  If everyone here today picks up the phone and calls for one hour, encouraging veterans to get out and vote  I guarantee you our voice will not only be heard on November 6, but it will continue to be heard.