It's a celebration, b**ches

Ladies and gentlemen,

Forgive me, but tonight I am celebrating with more than a few beers. It's the birthday of the great unit in which I serve -- the 101st Airborne Division.

From a beast of a hill in north Georgia, to the 10,000-foot peaks in Afghanistan, the Screaming Eagles have been the weapon of choice for more then 70 years.

You've watched and read about Dick Winters and the Band of Brothers. The Division pioneered airborne warfare under the direction of Major General William Lee. It perfected the those techniques in preparation for D-Day and toppled the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgarden.

It protected the Little Rock Nine and climbed Hamburger Hill, while completely redefining itself and the use of helicopters in battle. The Division suffered in Gander, but rebounded in Kuwait when it fired the first shots of Kuwaiti freedom.

Its Rakassans led the charge in Afghanistan, and the Division fought for more than six years in Iraq. After three trips to Afghanistan, it is the most deployed fighting force the world has ever seen.

I am proud to have twice fought with Screaming Eagles at my side.

A few days after its activation, Major General William Lee gave what I consider the second most perfect speech in American history:

"The 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on 16 August 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny.

Due to the nature of our armament, and the tactics in which we shall perfect ourselves, we shall be called upon to carry out operations of far-reaching military importance and we shall habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme.

Let me call your attention to the fact that our badge is the great American eagle. This is a fitting emblem for a division that will crush its enemies by falling upon them like a thunderbolt from the skies.

The history we shall make, the record of high achievement we hope to write in the annals of the American Army and the American people, depends wholly and completely on the men of this division. Each individual, each officer and each enlisted man, must therefore regard himself as a necessary part of a complex and powerful instrument for the overcoming of the enemies of the nation. Each, in his own job, must realize that he is not only a means, but an indispensable means for obtaining the goal of victory. It is, therefore, not too much to say that the future itself, in whose molding we expect to have our share, is in the hands of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division."

 

Definitely sounds like a birthday worthy of celebration. Cheers.