DOBBINS HEIGHTS — Retired Lt. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin spoke at the Dobbins Heights Community Center to share his view on the importance of upholding American values at home and honoring the veterans who defend them.

Gaskin served as the Deputy Chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee in Brussels Belgium from March 2010 to September 2013; as the Vice Director of The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C. from July 2008 until May 2009 and as the Commanding General of Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, VA beginning in September 2002.

He began his remarks by reciting the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley, the third stanza of which reads: “Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the Horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid.”

Mayor Antonio Blue invited Gaskin to speak after meeting him at a recent funeral. Raven Newton sang the National Anthem to a standing ovation from the crowd that filled the Community Center.

Gaskin listed the United States military’s recent achievements, including the killing of the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in October lauding the military efforts in the Middle East to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

“All who have served this cause are liberators in the best tradition of we who are Americans,” Gaskin said. “Their actions have made our nation safer and have made the world free and safe from all the new dangers that appear. Their actions have also upheld ideals of America’s founders: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Gaskin noted that he is one of six African Americans who have ever been a Lieutenant General, and that the first African American officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, Frederick Clinton Branch, was from Hamlet.

He said the U.S. must value freedom for all of mankind, not just freedom at home, and urged those in attendance to not forget America’s place in the world.

“Because we are Americans we are willing to serve and sacrifice for a cause,” Gaskin said. “Our nation remains the greatest force for good and never ever let the political discourse cause us to lose that fact.

“If there is one thing that our veterans teach us, that is that there is no threat we cannot beat, that there is no challenge that we cannot overcome, and America’s best days are still ahead of us,” he continued.

Gavin Stone | Daily Journal Retired Lt. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin speaks at the Dobbins Heights Community Center on Veterans Day.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_IMG_4784-1.jpgGavin Stone | Daily Journal Retired Lt. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin speaks at the Dobbins Heights Community Center on Veterans Day.

Gavin Stone

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