SERVING GOD AND COUNTRY WITH HONOR
Video: Lt. Ted Macie delivers an inspiring retirement speech aboard the USS Constitution
When I left for the Navy at 20 years old, in March of 2001, I was just looking to get a job, experience new things, and gain some structure for life. I figured spending a little time in the military would be a good experience. Good, but temporary.
As an enlisted sailor, I never stepped foot on a ship. I was a Seabee and traveled by plane on deployments to places that taught me things that I, to this day, don’t take for granted.
…(full text at link)
I kept my Oath to the Constitution and the American people, when it was most difficult and mattered the most. I fought illegal orders, I exposed corruption, and I raised red flags about extremely concerning information and medical statistics that are signaling that our servicemembers, and further, people all over the world, are in danger. When the DoD refused to listen, I brought it to Congress and became a whistleblower and have experienced retaliation for doing so. I have absolutely no doubt that if I stood down and obeyed illegal orders I would still be serving for years to come.
We have come to a place that I recognize that all the amazing things about the US that I learned to appreciate are an illusion. If we buy into the illusion that we are functioning under our founding documents we will all remain slaves to a system that is spiraling downward and robbing the futures of our children and grandchildren. What legacy are we leaving our children if we make the shackles shorter and heavier?
Why have we forsaken our God given rights and accepted the loss of liberty as part of life? Why have we become so indifferent to whether we live in comfortable, albeit temporarily so, slavery, than difficult freedom? We don’t deserve the men and women who risked EVERYTHING THEY HAD to establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
We don’t deserve Life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness if we are not willing to fight for it. This may be the end of my Navy career, but I have only just begun to fight!
We are symbolically standing on the USS Constitution for me to declare that I, Edward Roger Macie, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or DOMESTIC, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freer than I have ever been able to do, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully serve our Constitutional Republic, the United States of America, so help me God.
8:30 AM · Nov 4, 2024·72.8K Views
https://x.com/annvandersteel/status/1853429679731978417