Shawn Ryan - A Memorial Day Message | SRS Special Release

it's Memorial Day 2023 I just got home. from Decatur Texas where I gave a speech. at the NRS Ranch for the 14th annual. Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial classic. his surviving wife Patsy Shipley asked. me to come down and. and talk about the meeting Memorial Day. what it means to me and um. I'm not much of a public speaker it's my. first one but uh this is important.

I thought I would go down there and just. speak Straight From the Heart seemed to. be pretty impactful so. I would like to share with you all. since the beginning of this country. actually since before we were actually a. country from the Revolutionary War all. the way to present time. there have been approximately. 1.1 million.

American Service members who have died. for what we call America today. that's our freedoms. that a lot of us take for granted. it's our well-being. for the safety that we have in this. country. for people to come here. and live the American dream.

if you take that 1.1 million. and you turn that into a percentage of. just today's population there are an. estimated. 366 million. American citizens living in the United. States today. if you just took. the 1.1 million. from the conception of this country. until now.

not including all the people that have. come and gone and lived in this country. passed just today. it would only be. less than .3. of the population. that should be our most cherished. honored. class of people. ever exist in America.

think about that. 1.1. million men and women service members. have died for what we have today. and tell you a story. it was late September 2005. I went on my first. deployment to Afghanistan I was with. Seal Team two.

this was just three months after June. 28th. for those of you that don't know June. 28th was. Operation Red Wings. it was the biggest. loss the SEAL Teams had ever experienced. and that specific Moment In Time. usually when you deploy.

the team that's in country there's a big. turnover. the team that's in country they do a. turnover to. to the new team that's going to take. their place and you talk about. what works in combat what doesn't work. what kind of missions were they running. what bad guys are we after. all of that stuff. usually takes at least a week. except this time. there was no brief.

there was no brief. because there was no one left alive. to do that turnover. they were all dead. except one. and so the one brief that we did get. was from a.

Junior. intelligence officer. what that brief consisted of was one. he read Marcus luttrell's. after action reports. on what happened that day. it was a. starch reminder.

of what we might be getting ourselves. into. the second part of that brief. he showed us a. propaganda video that Taliban had. created. as a recruitment video. in that video was. footage. of the actual gun fight that went down.

on June 28th. there was footage of. them shooting our helicopters down. they wanted to save. the four operators that were on the. ground. but what stuck out to me most in that. video. was one of the seals. that had just been killed in action.

was laying upside down on the. on the side of a mountain. and all around him he had. he had a swarm of Taliban fighters. Cami Co top was. pulled over his chest you could see. Exposed Skin. and I remember watching these Fighters.

and they were. pillaging all of his gear off of his. body. taking his watch off his wrist. another one. picked his rifle up. trying to figure out how to turn his. laser on. another one holding his ID up to the.

camera. showing the world. who they had just killed. and the thing I remember most about this. segment. was I saw a what appeared to be a fresh. tattoo. on this. Kia seals ribs. I looked over at my teammate who was.

sitting to my right. he was crying. before. I could say anything to him. he looked at me and he just said. I remember the day. he got that tattoo. now the seal. laying lifeless upside down.

surrounded by Taliban fighters. was Danny Dietz. the same Danny Dietz. that we were all there to honor. in Texas. over this weekend. that is just.

one scenario. of many. that plays out in my head. this time of year. some of you get it some of you don't. a lot of you know exactly what it's like. to. lose somebody in the blink of an eye.

for the benefit. of everybody else that lives in this. country. and as civilians. some of you are. you want to know how can you honor these. guys. these men and women these service. members that have died for everything. that we've come to enjoy our sense of. security our freedoms in this country.

and I know that can be tough. let's get real grumpy around this time. of year. we've lost a lot. of Brothers. and us. that's family. we thank us for our service. we get upset. because it's not about us. but I'm here to tell you one thing.

it doesn't matter what we think. here's what matters. when you go home tonight. and you look at yourself in the mirror. you're getting ready for bed you look at. yourself in the mirror. and you ask yourself one question.

was I an American. it was worth dying for. today. and if the answer is yes. you're doing everything. those service members that died for us.

would have ever wanted. carry out our traditions. carry out our culture. stand up for what you believe in stand. up for what's right. that's all you need to do. just ask yourself. was I an American. it was worth dying for.

today. and for us service members and veterans. today's tough. I know what you see we all see the same. things we see the. furniture store with 50 American flags. out front with not one mention of one of. those 1.1 million people. who died. for them to even have that furniture.

sale. we see the parties. we see the car sales we see the carpet. sales. we see everybody trying to make money. but there's a lot of good people in this. country too and we have to remember that. and they're just looking for a way to. show appreciation. and we have to remember something. we carry a lot of resentment.

we carry a lot of weight. no matter what we do that's never going. to go away. but if we remember this one thing. our brothers our sisters. our family. the people. that we fought with. that didn't come home.

they wouldn't want us carrying that. weight. they wouldn't want us. feeling that resentment. they just want us. living our best lives. they want us to be happy. that's why they did it.

and I don't know about you all but the. ones that I know. they wouldn't have gone out any other. way. and while that may be a tough pill to. swallow. there's a quote. that gives me some peace. and ironically. the first time I read this quote.

was the same day. that I walked into Afghanistan for the. first time. sat in on that brief. those of you seals that are watching. that deployed over there you know. exactly what I'm talking about. it was written on the wall. and the hooch. we used to sleep in. and this is what it says.

for those who fought for it. freedom. has a flavor. the protected will never know. and to me. that's a privilege to be able to say. that. happy Memorial day everyone. remember what this day is about.

and God bless America. thank you.