Many things interest me and the resort life style gives me a chance to do many things I would never have tried. I 've traveled extensively, worked as a bartender, waitress, lab technician, sewer and water plant operator, deputy sheriff, school teacher, retail clerk, seamstress, and lots of other things depending on what needs to be done. I have been married twice, raised four children and have three grandchildren.

This is the speech given at the monument on Memorial Day, 2007.

It is an honor to be here to share my life and my thoughts on this Memorial Day.  My son is Sgt Alan Mettler, 82^nd Airborne and my nephew is 1 Lt Christopher Zurawski, 148 Infantry Army Reserve.  These two men have introduced me to the amazing force that the military is not just in our national and political lives, but in our personal lives as well.  It goes beyond being a job and into a true mission changing lives, changing politics and changing the world.

In the aftermath of Katrina my son Alan and my nephew Chris were each deployed to New Orleans to provide security, man rescues, recover bodies, and start the clean-up of that city so that residents could return. 

Chris also spent a year in Kosovo on a peace keeping mission, and is currently on deployment to Iraq as the commander of a transition team.  He is in charge of the training and operations of the Iraqis in the development of the transition to the Iraqi Government.  He so believes in his mission that he plans to accept deployment to Afghanistan in 2008.

Alan is on deployment to Iraq and is stationed  at the Contingency Operating Base Speicher outside Tikrit.  He serves as the assistant to Col Owens.  His mission is to provide security to VIPs during engagements with Iraqi government officials.  His units mission is to provide security for the Iraqi people as they rebuild their communities and establish new governments and public services.  He so believes in his mission that he has re-enlisted and will become the assistant to Gen. Caldwell.

In talking to these two men, the recurrent theme is that they believe in what they do.  They believe that their mission, their work is making life better for the people they serve.  My nephew Chris said in a recent email, “ I love being involved in the development of this new nations government…Everyone believes in the mission”.

While we will never know exactly what jobs our military personnel do, what services they provide, what lives they change, we do know that their effect is powerful. We know that their sacrifices and devotion are something to be proud of and it is a great honor to see firsthand that devotion to American Ideals.  When I look at them I see personal strength, caring, and deep compassion.  I see a drive to do a demanding job that gives safety to people in a dangerous place,

security to people whose lives have been shattered,

better living conditions for the destitute,

leadership to people who live in chaos,

direction to people whose lives have changed in ways that are unimaginable to most of us.

I see Americans who live the dream of peace and harmony for all in a world where the reality is anything but.  I feel myself welling with pride when I think of the job they do and the people they have become.  And it is awesome to know that there are many thousands more who do the same job with the same drive, the same sacrifice, and the same devotion.  And even more awesome to know it has been that way across the generations.