By Terri Moon Cronk
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 28, 2014 – The military has a moral
obligation to take care of veterans and the relatives of service members, Army
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told attendees at the 2014 Tragedy Assistance Program
for Survivors Honor Guard Gala last night.
Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the
keynote speaker for the event. Cameron Santos-Silva, a surviving child,
presented Air Force Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, chief of staff of the Air Force,
with the TAPS Honor Guard Gala Military Award.
Recipients of TAPS awards, the chairman said, are “honored
for something that I consider to be absolutely extraordinary.”
“What holds us together as a force is that we trust each
other,” the chairman said. “You don’t walk out of a forward-operating base in
Iraq or Afghanistan or anyplace and put yourself in the cockpit of an aircraft
or deploy on a ship unless you trust that if something happens, the man or woman
to your right or left knows what they have to do.
And just as important,” he added, “is that your family
you’ve left behind will be cared for.”
TAPS’ mission, Dempsey said, is “absolutely essential to who
we are as a profession. Establishing, maintaining and living up to that bond of
trust absolutely has to exist among our ranks in peace and in war.”
The chairman commended Bonnie Carroll, TAPS’ president, for
founding the organization.
“It’s the brilliance of Bonnie Carroll that brings us here
tonight,” Dempsey said.
“Can you imagine,” he added, “if, in 1994, she hadn’t begun
to put this organizations together, so that when we really needed it in 2002
and beyond, we [might not have had a] public-private partnership that we could
fall back on to take care of the survivors of those who served and gave their
lives in the protection of their country?”
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