Commentary

On this Memorial Day weekend, I want to recognize the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in support of America and the Constitution.

Memorial Day officially became a national holiday in 1971, after formerly being known as Decoration Day, when Americans visited local cemeteries to place flowers on family grave sites. I remember it well.

By then, I had completed eight years of service in the United States Air Force, where I have memories of recognition ceremonies and parades.

I recall one in particular because it was the only time I actually marched in a Memorial Day parade.  I still feel a sense of pride when I look at a 1958 photo taken as I marched with Dow Air Force Base colleagues up Main Street in Bangor, Maine.  That sense of pride also surfaced during Armed Forces Day celebrations.

FBI Whistleblower a True Patriot

The name, Garret O’Boyle isn’t a well-recognized name, but you should remember it and thank God that we have individuals like him who stand up for our nation’s ideals.

O’Boyle was one of the FBI whistleblowers, who not only served four years as a special agent in the FBI, where he received high annual reviews, after serving as police officer following his service in the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan with honors.

If you didn’t follow the testimony of the whistleblowers, you didn’t hear how his life was upended.

After being selected for a new specialty unit in the Quantico, Virginia region he reported for duty, when he learned that he had been suspended and no longer had a security clearance, rendering his family, including a two-week-old daughter, homeless while the agency refused to release his household goods and family clothing for weeks after authorizing his move halfway across the country.

Early in his testimony, O’Boyle stated that he “never took an oath to the FBI.  I swore my oath to the Constitution.”

Today, O’Boyle doesn’t want to resign from the FBI.  “We’re trusting in the Lord and his provision and his guidance.  He’s the one planning our steps and paving our way.”

How chilling it was to hear O’Boyle say: “The FBI will crush you. The government will crush you and your family if you try to expose what they are doing wrong.” I was reminded of this comment made by Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer during an MSNBC interview on January 3, 2017: “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you.”

Meanwhile, the FBI issued this unbelievable statement on O’Boyle: “The FBI’s mission is to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people.  The FBI has not and will not retaliate against individuals who make protected whistleblower disclosures.”

This Memorial Day, I ask you to share your recognition of those who gave their lives in military service with patriots like Garret O’Boyle, who took an oath to the Constitution when he joined the Army and later the Federal Bureau of Investigation, only to have his FBI service smeared for wanting the truth to be exposed.

May God continue to bless the United State of America