Final Honors for a Fallen Hero
At a hillside cemetery near the central Texas town of Gatesville, Sergeant Richard Rudd was finally laid to rest, nearly 80 years after he was killed in action. Attendance at the burial last December was light, as the late infantryman had few close relatives. The Army Honor Guard presented Rudd’s grand-niece with a folded flag and spoke the words repeated at countless military memorials: “On behalf of the president of the United States, the United States Army, and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one’s honorable and faithful service.”
Sgt. Rudd died fighting the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge in 1945 — where the violence was so intense that his body could not be recovered immediately. Later, the remains of a number of unidentified soldiers were found and then buried at an American military cemetery in Belgium — marked only with an X and a number. Decades after his death, X-3144 was identified through dental records and DNA as Sgt. Richard Rudd.
The story of Richard Rudd goes to the heart and soul of one of the U.S. military’s core creeds: Leave no soldier behind. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is charged with the task of looking for and identifying missing American servicemen and women. Difficult as it is to believe, 70,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought in World War II are still missing. This does not include service members still missing from the Vietnam, Korean, and other wars.
Sgt. Rudd’s sacrifice 80 years ago weighs heavily on me, as does the sacrifice of all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have died in combat. Without them, our country would likely not exist, certainly not as it does today. The continued service of our military men and women is essential to the preservation of our democracy and our freedoms.
It is difficult for me to accept that a past and perhaps soon to be again commander in chief of the United States believes soldiers to be “suckers” and “losers.” It pains me even to quote those words. And just in case your memory needs refreshing, the former president has never served in the armed forces, though he was of draftable age during the Vietnam War. He got a medical deferment because he allegedly had bone spurs. Sadly, Donald Trump has a history of maligning the military he once commanded and now seeks to command again.
When running for president in 2015, he had unkind words for former POW and then Senator John McCain. “He’s not a war hero. I like people who weren’t captured,” was the insult. Trump couldn’t even show respect for McCain when the war hero and senator died from a brain tumor in 2018, telling his staff, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral.”
In 2016, Trump belittled the Gold Star family of Captain Humayun Khan after his parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
The following year, at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump and his chief of staff, former General John Kelly, visited the grave of Kelly’s son who died serving in Afghanistan. Standing next to the grave, Trump said to Kelly, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Later that year, on a trip to France, Trump canceled a visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, saying, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” On the same trip, he referred to the 1,800 Marines who lost their lives during a World War I battle as “suckers” for getting killed. He also asked that wounded veterans not be allowed in military parades. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.
The incidents were myriad while he was in office. But the military hadn’t come up much during this year’s presidential campaign until last weekend when Trump brought it up himself. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s husband, Michael Haley, a captain in the Army National Guard, is currently serving in Africa. At a campaign stop, Trump snipped, “What happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone.” Trump is well aware of Captain Haley’s occupation and likely his whereabouts.
Haley responded on X: “Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about. Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.”
We are now in the process of finding out whether a majority of Americans agree.
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It is one of the mysteries of this new century. How can a man who never served and has denigrated POWs nonetheless be supported by so many in our military? How can a man who as denigrated women and been convicted of assault be supported by so many women? How can a man who has bankrupted companies he's invested in be supported by so many successful businessmen? How can a man who so openly lies and so frequently has been caught philandering be supported by so many evangelicals? I can't figure it out. And I'll never support him.
My father served in WWII. My son served 20 years in the army on multiple deployments. Donald Trump is not fit to clean the boots of the lowest recruit in boot camp. He is traitorous and dishonorable.