LTC Allen West Challenges America To Honor The Sacrifices Of Our Military; Keynotes American Heroes Dinner

  • Saturday, July 16, 2016
  • Dennis Norwood
As his wife, Tori, looks on, Andrew Smith, speaks to the audience at the American Heroes Dinner on Friday night at the Chattanooga Convention Center. The dinner is a fundraiser for the Honoring the Sacrifice Foundation, which was founded by the Smiths. LTC Allen West was the keynote speaker.
As his wife, Tori, looks on, Andrew Smith, speaks to the audience at the American Heroes Dinner on Friday night at the Chattanooga Convention Center. The dinner is a fundraiser for the Honoring the Sacrifice Foundation, which was founded by the Smiths. LTC Allen West was the keynote speaker.
On a Friday evening dedicated to honoring the sacrifice of a group of American heroes, keynote speaker retired Lieutenant Colonel Allen West talked about just what it meant to honor that sacrifice – and what did not honor that sacrifice.
 
LTC West, an Army retiree and former Member of Congress, delivered the keynote address of the Third Annual American Heroes Dinner of the Honoring the Sacrifice Foundation to a packed ballroom at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
 
Prior to the keynote address, founders of the organization, Andrew and wife Tori  Smith, himself a survivor of an IED blast in Iraq, honored Bill and Linda Hullander with the organization’s American Patriot Award.
The award honors those who exemplify the values and passion of the Foundation.
 
Also speaking this evening was Marine Sergeant DeMonte Cheeley, the recruiter who was wounded last July 16th in the terrorist attack on the Armed Forces Recruiting Center on Lee Highway, that eventually took the lives of the four Marines and one Sailor on Amnicola Highway.
 
When it was time for the keynote address, LTC West, a Fox News Contributor and  1983 University of Tennessee graduate (same class as Reggie White) began by saying how glad he was to be back on Rocky Top and taking some good natured swipes at the other Southeastern Conference teams represented in the audience. But, that would end the lighter side of his remarks.
 
Colonel West shot straight from the hip as he reminded the audience that when men and women joined the military they swore an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution, as do our federally-elected officials.  He said, “While no man can guarantee your happiness we have men in this country who think they can. We should not honor that. That is not who we are.”
 
A leading political conservative who has taken many a shot at President Barack Obama, he did not disappoint what could only be an audience described as largely conservative itself.
 
“When we think about what happened here in Chattanooga a year ago, in San Bernardino, in Orlando. And what happened at Fort Hood, Texas,” he said. “Also remember it was a year ago that the United States of America signed an agreement with the largest state sponsor of Islamic terrorism in the world and gave them millions of dollars.”
 
“I can (still) remember what happened to the Marines in Beirut,” he continued, “234 who lost their lives – sailors, marines and some soldiers – at the hands of Hezbollah, a proxy army of Iran. We are not honoring the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in Beirut when we give Iran millions of dollars.”
 
According to LTC West, our country is “not honoring the sacrifices of those young men we’re remembering tonight, all the men and women who lost their limbs because the number one supplier of the most lethal improvised explosive devices, responsible for 20 to 25 percent of the deaths and casualties in Iraq, were produced in Iran.”
 
The keynote speaker continued, “If we are to honor the sacrifices of these men and women let me tell you what we have to do.  We have to start talking about victory. When was the last time you heard anyone saying we have to take the fight to the enemy? When was the last time anyone (in the current administration) had the courage, the resolve, and the commitment to stand up and say ‘I’m sick and tired of these little b&%$#@’s, I’m gonna kill ‘em all!” After receiving one of the loudest ovations of the evening, he went on to talk of the restrictive rules of engagement such as don’t fire until fired upon.
 
“Any of us who have ever been in a fire fight,” he said, “know that within two to three seconds you just ceded the initiative over to the bad guy and our men and women are the ones who are going to be losing their lives. I believe that if we had more people on Capitol Hill who had been on the receiving end of an AK-47, an RPG or a PKM, men and women who had gone out at night, (who) know what it’s like to be afraid but they go into a fire fight because they love us; if we had more men and women who had taken an oath to the constitution and had been willing to lay their lives down for it, well, we’d have a different country and we’d have an enemy who would be running away from us.”
 
Colonel West went on, “We would not have a country that would go into an agreement with a country that would put our sailors on their knees at gun point and then be so apologetic we would thank them for taking care of our sailors. That’s not how we honor their sacrifice.”
 
“We do not honor their sacrifice by taking our services down to the lowest manning levels in decades or by giving them the oldest aircraft ever to fly,” he stated.

“I do not understand the military priorities of this current administration. When they are more concerned with transgenders being in the military and spend tax dollars for gender reassignment rather than for weapons and aircraft we are not honoring the sacrifice. What about the young men who are losing their lives because their aircraft are falling out of the sky? We do not honor their sacrifices unless we come out and make our voices heard.”
 
He also had words regarding the presumptive Democratic candidate for president saying, “I find it unconscionable that we could have a person running for president who abandoned Americans to die and then lied about it.”
 
 LTC West also recalled a bit of history for those in attendance, “When I remember the words that were spoken by Benjamin Franklin on September 17th, 1887 when he came out of Constitution Hall, and if you don’t know that date, it’s the date that our rule of law, our Constitution was signed.”
 
“That’s the date that is significant for each and every one of us that has ever worn a uniform because that’s why we said we will support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and that we will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. On that day when that incredible document was signed Franklin came out and was met a Philadelphia socialite woman named Mrs. Powell. Mrs. Powell asked one simple question. Do we have a monarchy or a republic? Franklin replied, a republic if you can keep it.”
 
West then challenged the audience, “If we are to honor the sacrifice going all the way back to Lexington Green at Concord Bridge going forward to the mountains of Afghanistan and the sands of Iraq, we have a responsibility as American citizens to keep this country as a constitutional republic and to train and educate ourselves and our future generations of what it means to live in a constitutional republic, a place where the rule of law is preeminent, a place where individual sovereignty and rights are preeminent and if we don’t do that we are not honoring the sacrifices of 240 years of men and women who have looked at these banners here – Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard – all these people who stood and pledged, “This we’ll defend” so that that banner of liberty and freedom and democracy, that beacon can stand.”
 
“We remember that we just celebrated 240 years of American independence,” West recalled. We must honor the sacrifices of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence as we live each and every day.”
 
West stated, “If we are to honor the sacrifice of those brave men it’s time for us to take back responsibility. We have a responsibility as American citizens to keep the constitutional republic. If we don’t, we are not honoring the sacrifices of the last 240 years of our nation.”
 
Contact Dennis Norwood at sportsshooter614@gmail.com; follow him on Twitter at @DennisENorwood.
Marine SGT DeMonte Cheeley was a special guest at the dinner. Cheeley was wounded in the attack on the Armed Forces Recruiting Center last July 16th during the terrorist attack that day.
Marine SGT DeMonte Cheeley was a special guest at the dinner. Cheeley was wounded in the attack on the Armed Forces Recruiting Center last July 16th during the terrorist attack that day.
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