Veterans Day is every day for Pham family

By Tony Pham
General Counsel, Richmond Sheriff’s Department

Maybe it’s personal for me. My life has been shaped by the sacrifices of veterans who picked up arms and gave of themselves. From our entry to this great nation 40 years ago to becoming citizens 30 years ago, these opportunities were secured by men and women in our armed forces who fought for our country.

Maybe it’s the 58,000 who did not come home or the many others who went missing in action or how our veterans were treated when they did come home, all while I enjoy freedom that makes this personal for me. Maybe it’s the understanding that these brave men and women leave their families to fight so we can enjoy ours.

Ronald Reagan once said that “freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” I, for one, am grateful we have our veterans fighting for our nation’s freedom so we don’t have to one day tell our kids what it is like to live in the United States.

So to all of my veterans, today and every day, is your day. The Pham Phamily sincerely appreciates each of you. Without you, there would be no us. I cannot speak for others, but Veterans Day is everyday for us.

‪#‎Leadership‬‪#‎Commitment‬‪#‎Courage‬

—
Tony Pham, a General Counsel for the Richmond City Sheriff’s Office and the GOP nominee for the Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, lives with his family in Henrico, Virginia. Born in South Vietnam, he and his family immigrated to the United States at the fall of Saigon in 1975, and became American citizens in 1985. A graduate of the College of William and Mary, he earned his J.D. from the University of Richmond’s School of Law. In 1999, Mr. Pham was initiated into the Upsilon Nu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, a historically African American fraternity founded on the campus of Howard University.  He was named as one of Style Weekly Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” and Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s “Leaders in the Law” for his work in criminal law and the Asian community.

The basics of freedom

By Wayne Ozmore
Guest Post

One of the points of military boot camp, in the late 80s, was to inflict mass amounts of mental and physical stress on recruits to break their individualism in order rebuild a team mentality to benefit the United States. Everyone was “broken” by our Drill Instructor without apology. Everyone had to be broken down and rebuilt without exception.

The Drill Instructor’s job (at the time) was to make the weak of mind and body quit in boot camp; otherwise, they would fail the United States in combat. Just after the most grueling week of boot camp (week four or so), our Drill Instructors mustered us inside the barracks one morning. They roughed us up for thirty minutes or so by making us hold wooden rifles out and away from our bodies with an outstretched arm (in five- and ten-minute intervals). It hurt and the pain was real.

Remembering President Ronald Reagan on his birthday

By Lynn R. Mitchell

“Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.”
–Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States

When Germany invaded Europe, it was America that brought the people freedom. When Communists built a wall, it was America that brought the people freedom. When Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein tortured and butchered thousands of their own people, it was America that brought the people freedom.

Ronald Reagan clearly understood freedom and the role America plays in preserving it throughout the world.

When America preserves the freedom of others, it preserves its own freedom.

Freedom is the spirit of America, and it is this spirit that Ronald Reagan communicated so well.

Thank you, President Reagan, for keeping the torch burning. You will be remembered as one of the greatest leaders of all time.

The Berlin Wall … 25 years later

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Death.

As a child, the Berlin Wall represented death to me because media stories told of those who tried to escape from East Germany to West only to be gunned down by East German guards who killed anyone trying to escape the depressed world of communism.