245 years of declared independence

  • Published
  • By Ms. Shannon Murphy
  • 932nd Airlift Wing History Office

July 1776 ~ July 2021 (245 years)

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Declaration of Independence) As we get ready to celebrate another July 4th holiday in America, I am struck by how similar the struggles 245 years ago are not so different than the struggles we are facing in the twenty-first century.

Consider: the American Revolutionary War began with the battles at Lexington and Concord (Massachusetts) in April 1775. This is over a year before the Declaration of Independence was organized, written, and finally, adopted on July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence, drafted during ever-changing political, military, social, and diplomatic environments, solidified our American truths and fueled the beginning of an eight-year war. Ensuring those declarations, with 86 changes from the first to final draft, became a part of a new American tradition, necessary buy-in and support from all thirteen colonies was painstakingly sought.

The revolutionists could not just write the declaration, the “truths,” and leave colonial politics and diplomacy to the aftermath of war. Those responsible for signing and supporting the Declaration of Independence needed to follow through on its inclusion into American history; to fight and live and die for their ideas, to believe in something most (if not almost all) of the fighting men would never see (the actual Declaration and/or the end of the war).

Colonists had to fight and believe and act as a united force, believe in their bigger mission, protect the life they had carved for themselves, by themselves.

Now, in 2021, as we struggle against old and new foes, we recall the original truths and ideas to unite our military and our basic beliefs. Our various environments swirl, shift, and evolve at a faster than most can keep up with but desperately try via chosen platforms, many with a singular bias. Like the colonials and the Continental forces, we need to believe in our basic mission: to support and defend our Constitution, and for the national defense of the United States of America. Celebrate how we have grown, and how when the world tilts sideways, we, the United States military forces, are there to balance it all out.

As we ready ourselves for the start of our Unit Effectiveness Inspection (UEI) next week, our upcoming Readiness Exercise in August, and our deployment cycle this fall and winter, remember that “our truths” are evident and re-enforceable in our core values. Believe in your mission, and see it through, to the best of your ability.

E pluribus unum.

Out of many, one.

Out of our individual wing members, one wing – the 932d Airlift Wing.