"Your countrymen owe you their freedom and their security. They sleep safely at night and pursue their dreams during the day because you stand the watch and protect them.
For four and a half years, I have signed the orders deploying you, all too often into harm's way. This has weighed on me every day. I have known about and felt your hardship, your difficulties, your sacrifice more than you can possibly imagine. I have felt personally responsible for each of you, and so I have tried to do all I could to provide whatever was needed so you could complete your missions successfully and come home safely--and, if hurt, get the fastest and best care in the world.
You are the best that America has to offer. My admiration and affection for you is without limit, and I will think about you and your families and pray for you every day for the rest of my life. God bless you.//Robert M. Gates//"
The above is from Secretary Gates' farewell letter to American troops last Thursday, June 30. Gates' farewell from Washington had more flair and pomp than your average Defense Secretary's departure: state dinners with the President and First Lady, another dinner hosted by Secretary of State Clinton, and a big to-do at the Pentagon. It was there that Gates recieved a surprise Presidential Medal of Freedom from Pres. Obama - the highest civilian honor the commander in chief can pass out.
I've been a huge fan of Bob Gates since my days at Texas A&M - he was the cover of Texas Monthly the very month I transferred to TAMU. He is a man of character, humility, and perseverance, someone you read about in text books, but seems so down to earth he could be your next door neighbor. I've rambled about this before, but I'm not sure I've ever been more proud to be an American than when I was a college student, standing on the steps of a campus building, listening to our university's president talk of his struggle to decide whether or not he should leave our university. Retirement? No. The 43rd president had tapped him as the next Secretary of Defense, and he flew through senate confirmations and was, that night, preparing for next day's departure to D.C.
He served our country with a devotion and sense of pride and lack of scandal reserved for a small handful of people in the past, oh, fifty years. I teared up as one of thousands huddled on that November night to see then-President Gates in person. I've teared up reading several articles, some while living in DC, others as I've followed from life back in Texas.
I echo his thanks to our troops and admire his devotion to defending our freedoms. Life as we know it would be vastly different if it weren't for the sacrifices of public servants like the one and only Bob Gates. Gig Em!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/gates-on-eve-of-retirement-is-sent-off-in-fashion/2011/06/30/AGTt08rH_blog.html
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/defense-secretary-robert-gates-s-farewell-note-20110629
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