Remember and Honor
By U.S. Senator Deb Fischer
Each Memorial Day, we remember and honor the brave men and women who gave their life while serving this great nation. Since the end of the American Revolutionary War, more than 646,000 American troops have died in combat. Each of those lives was a world unto itself — a person with a family, a home, and a future. Each of them chose to stand in harm’s way so that others would not have to.
We remember the soldiers of the American Revolution, who took up arms against tyranny and gave birth to a republic. We remember those killed during the Civil War — a generation turned against itself.
We remember the doughboys who endured the mud and misery of the trenches in Europe during the First World War, who answered the call of a conflict they could barely have imagined. We remember the soldiers, sailors, and marines who fought across two oceans in World War II — in the jungles of the Pacific and the fields of Europe — who faced a darkness that threatened to consume the free world. Still, they did not flinch.
We remember those who journeyed to Korea and Vietnam, who served in the face of uncertainty and division at home, yet gave no less than those who came before.
We remember those who answered the call in Iraq and Afghanistan — who carried the weight of a new kind of warfare in a new kind of world. Many Nebraskans know the story of Marine Corporal Daegan Page. At only 23 years old, he was killed in a suicide bombing attack at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport in 2021. Corporal Page and 12 other service members gave their lives while screening people prior to evacuation from Afghanistan. We still feel Corporal Page’s absence in Nebraska five years later.
We also remember the service members who have given their lives since the start of hostilities in Iran. Among them is Army Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, Nebraska.
Sergeant Tietjens was killed in Kuwait during a drone attack while supporting Operation Epic Fury. He was assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command out of Des Moines, Iowa. He enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2006 as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. He gave two decades of his life to this country — deploying to Kuwait in 2009 and again in 2019 — always answering the call. Always showing up.
He had an impressive record of service, marked by numerous ribbons and medals, each representing a chapter of a life poured out in service to something larger than himself. We honor Sergeant Tietjens this Memorial Day, and we continue to hold his family, his unit, and all who loved him deeply in our hearts.
Here in Nebraska, we know what it means to honor the fallen. We take that duty seriously. And we are grateful to every generation of service members who have stood between us and those who would do us harm. We can never repay them. But we can remember them. We can teach our children their names. We can live lives worthy of their sacrifice. We can refuse to let their memory fade.
Their courage will serve as a lasting model of duty, honor, and country for all who come after. We live in the land of the free because of the brave. May we always remember that. And may God bless every one of them and the nation they loved enough to die for.
Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.
