After 75 Years a Hero Comes Home: On Memorial Day, Remembering First Sergeant David Quinn and All of Our Fallen Heroes

On Memorial Day, as we honor the brave Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and our freedom, we remember Granite Staters like U.S. Marine Corps First Sergeant David Quinn of Temple, New Hampshire.

According to his obituary, First Sergeant Quinn enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corp Reserves during WWII, and left New Hampshire to fight in the Pacific Theater. He was killed at the battle that became known as “Bloody Tarawa,” an important but costly victory for the United States, and his family assumed his body had been lost at sea.

But on May 4, 2018, nearly 75 years after his death, First Sergeant Quinn finally returned home to New Hampshire where he was laid to rest with full military honors.

I was proud to commemorate First Sergeant Quinn’s life in the Congressional Record in honor of his long-overdue return home to Temple. See below for the full entry in the Congressional record:

This Memorial Day, I’m thinking about our brave service members like First Sergeant Quinn as we come together to honor all those who lost their lives defending our country, our ideals, and the enduring concept of freedom that is our very core.

Memorial Day is also a time for us to rededicate ourselves to supporting those who have followed in the footsteps of our fallen heroes. As part of those efforts, I recently joined Senator Marco Rubio in introducing the bipartisan Veterans’ Education, Transition, and Opportunity Prioritization Plan (VET OPP) Act of 2018 to prioritize veterans’ employment and education programs at the VA.

I I am also glad that the Senate recently passed the bipartisan VA MISSION Act and sent it to President Trump for his signature. This bill provides expanded community-care options for all New Hampshire veterans, and also aims to address issues with the VA Choice Program — issues that I have heard about from New Hampshire veterans and providers. It also includes other key priorities that I have long supported, which you can read about here.

We can never fully repay those who serve or have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom as First Sergeant Quinn and so many others have done. But we can — and we must — recommit ourselves to honoring that sacrifice, working every day to live up to our nation’s ideals of freedom and inclusion — ideals that they fought to protect. And we must continue working to ensure that future generations of Granite Staters and Americans understand and appreciate the sacrifices made by these heroes and their families.