Mechanicsville High School

Loyalty means we demonstrate pride and allegiance to our country, community, school, family, and peers. In short, it means to show you are there for someone else at all times good and bad, up and down. I want to share with you a short personal story about my family’s history that speaks to the very essence of loyalty.

The date was February 4, 1945. The crew of the USS Barbel - ss316, a submarine, was struck by bombs from Japanese aircraft several miles off the coast of the Philippines and all were lost, killed in action. This event hits home for me because my great uncle Ellis Henry Stevens was a Motor Machinist’s Mate 2nd class aboard that submarine.  I never met my great uncle, but his youngest sister, my great aunt Mae Stevens made sure I knew who he was while I was growing up as a kid.  She often shared pictures and stories about him from their childhood and read many of the letters he wrote home while he was in service. 

My great uncle was a loyal serviceman to our country, but he was also fiercely loyal to the family back home.  He was the oldest of four children and joined the Navy in 1939 at the beginning of World War II.  During his time in the service, he would write home to his family on a regular basis and would wire money home monthly so that my great aunt Mae, the baby of the family, could stay in school.  My grandfather and his other brother worked the farms to make ends meet, but never finished school while my great aunt was able to go on and graduate.  Thanks in large part to my great uncle Ellis’s loyalty to family.

Shortly after he was presumed dead on February 19, 1946, his family received the Purple Heart and a memorial notification letter signed by President Harry Truman for his sacrifice and service to our country.  I am now the proud owner of his purple heart and memorial notification letter as well as all the letters he wrote my great aunt.  One day I will write a book about him based on his letters to her and his loyalty.  His story is the legacy that I can pass on to my children and future grandchildren.  What will be your story of loyalty?

I encourage you to reflect on who or what you are loyal to and to express your gratitude to those who are loyal to you.   I will close with this quote from renowned film director Mario Puzo

“The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other.”

The following story about Franklin D. Roosevelt and the challenges he faced en route to the presidency is a prime example of perseverance.

The year was 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who would go on to become the 32nd president of the United States was diagnosed with polio.  A disease that would leave him paralyzed from the waist down and the root cause of other health problems he would endure.

FDR had served as a member of the New York Senate and Assistant Secretary of the Navy up to that point. He was not about to let polio keep him from continuing his career in politics. There was much more that he wanted to accomplish. Despite the lack of a cure for polio, he continuously worked on rehabilitating.  He even established a rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Georgia in 1925.

He never gave up the hope that he could walk again throughout the rest of his life. He never let polio stand in the way of his dream to be President, so he persevered through his disease to eventually become the 32nd President of the United States.

Prior to becoming President, at the urging of a political colleague and despite his physical limitations, FDR ran for governor of New York and would win the office by a mere one percent margin in 1928. As New York was the most populous state at the time, serving as governor would set him up for the next presidential election. FDR would serve two terms as governor before running for President in 1932.

When FDR was President during the Great Depression he did not let polio stop him from opening up banks, getting more jobs for people, making the New Deal, and other things that lessened the effects of the Great Depression. As World War II started, he was still battling polio and other illnesses, but that didn’t stop him either. His cause and purpose as a leader kept him going. His response to Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 reignited America’s resolve and courage and America quickly realized it could win in the war. 

FDR was absolutely the epitome for perseverance. He had the grit to fight through polio, the Great Depression, and World War II to lead America back to its feet. During his fourth term as president, polio finally got the best of FDR as he passed away April 12, 1945 at the end of World War II.  But FDR had accomplished his mission.

You see perseverance is all about your mindset. It’s about having an unwavering faith, a determination, and a strong belief in yourself that no matter what obstacles you come up against, you can get through it. 

In life, you will encounter many challenges and possibly defeat one way or another. Like FDR, you can persevere through those challenges and defeats to achieve your life’s mission if you just have the fortitude to keep fighting for it. And never, ever give up.