Happy Veterans Day 2015!

Today we pause to thank the many brave men and women who have valiant­ly served our coun­try in the armed forces, defend­ing this great nation so that the rest of us may go about our lives freely and peacefully.

We at NPI are espe­cial­ly grate­ful for the ser­vice of our own Rick Heg­dahl (U.S. Navy Retired), who served two tours of duty in the Iraqi the­ater a decade ago, and to all friends and sup­port­ers of NPI who are vet­er­ans, like Matt Isen­how­er, Chad Lup­kes, Andy Rib­au­do, Joel Ware, Jay Clough, and many more.

Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma com­mem­o­rat­ed the occa­sion with a speech at Arling­ton Nation­al Ceme­tery in Vir­ginia, where he was joined by many vet­er­ans, includ­ing Amer­i­ca’s old­est known female World War II vet­er­an, Army Lieu­tenant Colonel Luta C. McGrath, who is turn­ing one hun­dred and eight this month.

Oba­ma made a pitch dur­ing his remarks for employ­ers to hire vet­er­ans, saying:

Our trib­utes today will also ring hol­low if we don’t pro­vide our vet­er­ans with the jobs and oppor­tu­ni­ties that you need when you come home. That’s why we’ve helped more than 1.5 mil­lion vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies pur­sue an edu­ca­tion under the Post‑9/11 GI bill.

That’s why we worked to make sure that every state now pro­vides vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies with in-state tuition. It’s why we’re fight­ing to make it eas­i­er for our vet­er­ans to get the licens­es and cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to tran­si­tion the out­stand­ing skills they gained in the armed ser­vices to civil­ian jobs. It’s why we’re help­ing more vet­er­ans and mil­i­tary spous­es find jobs. And today, the vet­er­ans’ unem­ploy­ment rate is down to 3.9 per­cent — even low­er than the nation­al average.

But this can’t just be a job for gov­ern­ment. We all have a role to play. I real­ize that with less than 1 per­cent of Amer­i­cans serv­ing in uni­form, the oth­er 99 per­cent of folks don’t always see and appre­ci­ate the incred­i­ble skills and assets that our vet­er­ans can offer. On this Vet­er­ans Day, here’s what I want every Amer­i­can to know: Our vet­er­ans are some of the most tal­ent­ed, dri­ven, capa­ble peo­ple on Earth.

Good on you for say­ing this, Mr. President.

The full speech is avail­able for on-demand view­ing at WhiteHouse.gov.

Again, Hap­py Vet­er­ans Day, and thanks to all those NPI sup­port­ers and Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate read­ers who have served. We are for­ev­er grateful.