Veterans Day 2014

Veterans Day serves as a powerful reminder that freedom comes at a cost, paid for with courage, valor, and sacrifice. No nation in the history of the world has ever done more, or given more, in the defense of freedom than the United States and its citizens.

Today is a day when we pause to remember the sacrifice of our fellow citizens - those individuals who answered the call to serve their country. These brave men and women have guarded our shores and our liberties for hundreds of years and we owe them our utmost thanks and enduring gratitude.

As we show our appreciation to our veterans on this Veterans Day, we also need to acknowledge and thank the men and women currently in uniform and serving at home and abroad.

In an effort to honor our local veterans, I led the effort to create the Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Seneca County as a lasting tribute to the service and sacrifices of our brave servicemen and women.

The Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery is located on the hallowed ground of the former Sampson Naval and Air Force base, where over one million sailors and airmen trained in preparation for battle to defend the United States of America. The Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery was dedicated on July 30, 2011 and is the final resting place for over 150 veterans and their family members. The Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery is located in Romulus, a tremendously beautiful setting on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake, and within the shadow of the nationally recognized birthplace of Memorial Day in Waterloo.

And should anyone ever ask you where can we find American heroes this Veterans Day: please tell them that just a few short miles from you, in the heart of the Finger Lakes, there is a place where heroes are gathered, to be known forever as Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

For more information on the Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery contact Bill Yale, Executive Director of the Sampson Cemetery at (607) 379-0197 or visit the website at www.sampsonveteranscemetery.com

This Veterans Day, we remember those individuals who have served, those still serving, and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, to ensure that the rest of us could live in freedom and safety.

Please join me in honoring their sacrifices this, and every day