Jared Froggatte, a detective with the Iola police department and veteran of the Army’s 25th Infantry and the National Guard’s 891st Engineer Battalion, provided the keynote address at Memorial Day services Monday at Iola’s Highland Cemetery.
“While there is nothing unpatriotic about an auto race, a trip to the beach or a barbecue, we are here today to reflect on the true meaning of Memorial Day,” Froggatte said. “Let us remember that tyrannical regimes have been toppled and genocides stopped because Americans sacrificed life and limb. Let us remember that terrorist plots were foiled and killers brought to justice because Americans were willing to pay a high price.”
Americans can make the country a better place, a land where patriotism trumps politics and military veterans are society’s true celebrities,Froggatte said.
Froggatte volunteered twice to join the military, first with the 25th Infantry in Hawaii and then with the 891st, where he was among those deployed for a year to Iraq.
In addition, Froggatte said his father was with the Marines, serving during the Cuban Missile Crisis and was one of the first American soldiers in Vietnam.
“Where would this country be if not for the sacrifice of men and women willing to stand up in the face of evil?” Froggatte asked of the crowd. Those sacrifices are “so that we could have the liberties we enjoy and sometimes take for granted today.
“But just as we should not presume to speak for the fallen, we can make the country for which they have died a better place — one that honors their sacrifice and epitomizes the ideals enshrined in our Constitution.”
Froggatte is challenging Allen County Sheriff Bryan Murphy in the August primary election.
