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| Senate RECOGNITION OF THE VIETNAM MEMORIAL DEDICATION AND THE NATIONAL SALUTE TO VIETNAM VETERANS |
| FINAL REMARKS OF JAN C. SCRUGGS ...we'd now like to have a closing prayer and one other thing. This closing prayer will be led by Chaplain Resnicoff who graduated from Dartmouth and entered the navy as an Ensign. His first assignment was in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, as part of an operation called "Game Warden." And his ship was the first into Cambodia. he received the navy Commendation Medal and numerous other awards. He left the navy in 1972 to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City and he came back on active duty as a Chaplain. Ladies and gentlemen, here's the Rabbi. CHAPLAIN ARNOLD E. RESNICOFF, U.S. NAVY Some 2500 years ago, the prophet Jeremiah cried out with words filled with pain and anguish, words of despair, words which might have come out of the mouths of our Vietnam veterans until today. "Why have we been smitten?" he asked " and then for us there was no healing. We looked for peace but could find no good. We looked for a time of healing and, behold, we found terror." O Lord our God and God of generations past, help us, we pray, make this the beginning of the time of healing that we all seek. Help us ease the terror and the pain of all who suffered because of war. And help them and help us find the way to peace. God, let this monument and this dedication forever remind us that wewill come together to mourn our dead. We will come together to reach out to our wounded. We will come together to remember and to honor our brave. Only then may we have the vision to dream our dreams again. May we have the faith to pray our prayers again. May we have the courage to march along together again and, together, help make this the kind of country and the kind of world for which we pray. May we all join together and say, Amen. Click here for photocopy of complete original page. Click here for information on 20th Anniversary ceremony for Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Nov 11, 2002 -- including closing prayer based on original 1982 benediction. Click here for webpage for Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff Congressional Record 97th Congress Thursday, December 2, 1982 |
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