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Honoring the Brave: Celebrating National Medal of Honor Day · HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN®

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  So driving into work today, I overheard that today is a very special day.
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  Today is National Medal of Honor Day, and it's absorbed annually on March 25th,
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  a day to honor the courage and sacrifice of Medal of Honor recipients,
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  mainly because on this date, 1863, that was the first Medal of Honor that was
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  presented to six members of Andrews Raiders.
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  So then it got me thinking, how often on this show, we've been on the air seven
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  years, did we honor these recipients?
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  We never did. And today we will.
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  So for all the veterans, for all the military personnel, in addition to the
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  Medal of Honor recipients, we say thank you.
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  And today we honor you. We honor you with a power of prayer.
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  Have Faith, Let It Begin starts right now.
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  Starts right now.
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  Welcome to Have Faith, Let It Begin. Here's your host, Angel Santana.
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  Ariel, can you say, have faith? Let it begin. Let it begin? Let it begin. Say, have faith.
• 1:22
  Let it begin. Let it begin. No. No. No? Okay. Good boy. Hi, Noah. Noah! Noah!
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  Happy birthday, Noah!
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  This little light of mine, I'm going to let it try.
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  This little light of mine, I'm going to let it try.
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  This little light of rain, I'm going to let it try. Let it try.
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  Let it try. Let it try.
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  Daddy, I'm so excited. But I have one question. What's your question?
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  I'm going to be a pastor or a minister?
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  Good question. I don't know, but it is all in God's hands. Good morning.
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  You're listening to Have Faith Let It Begin, and it starts right now.
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  Hello, everyone, and welcome to this special edition of Have Faith Let It Begin.
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  It is the Medal of Honor Day, March 25th, 2025.
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  Also, shout outs to Z-Man. Happy birthday, my friend. So the Medal of Honor
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  is the highest military decoration awarded for valor in the face of the enemy.
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  And as of 2023, there have been 3,528 recipients, including the only woman, Dr.
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  Mary Walker, and 19 service members who have received two Medal of Honor.
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  Now, here's some key facts that I noticed.
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  There's so many things that have happened in 1861 during the Civil War.
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  There were recipients, and of course, the only woman, which I just mentioned, Dr.
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  Mary Edwards Walker, a Civil War surgeon, is the only woman who received that Medal of Honor.
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  There's so many different people that we can honor, but I can tell you out of
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  those numbers, 61 are living recipients of the Medal of Honor.
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  So we still have 61 still living.
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  And I will tell you that One of the things that I feel we need to talk about
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  is the bravery, the amazing bravery that these individuals have.
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  You know, provided us. And they come from all different wars,
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  from the Vietnam War to the Korean War to World War I and II to the Civil War.
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  I mean, this is how back it goes.
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  And I'm a little embarrassed, to be honest with you, that I've never realized
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  that we honor this this day annually.
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  And, you know, I've been on the year seven years, and quite honestly,
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  it's the first time I've heard of it.
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  I know that we've honored Medal of Honor winners when they provide them with it.
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  But other than that, I've never was aware of all the different type of,
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  you know, the actual day that we are talking about in question.
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  So I want to say thank you first and foremost to those individuals.
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  And also, I want to also remind each and every one of us that there are military,
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  you know, personnel, foreign and domestic, active, inactive.
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  We want to talk about our veterans.
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  We want to talk about every single person that defends the honor of this great country.
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  And of course, the Medal of Honor does not belong to me.
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  I remember this quote from Michael, I think it was Michael Edward Thornton, I think said it.
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  I'll double check that. But it quotes, it says, the Medal of Honor does not
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  belong to me. Hopefully I'm not paraphrasing here.
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  This medal belongs to every man, every woman who has ever served their country.
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  We're doing what we were trained to do. I remember that quote.
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  And that is important to remember. There's so many things that we can talk about
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  here today, but I want to spend a few minutes talking about all the different
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  ways of life that we have led here because of these brave men and women who serve this country.
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  We have a freedom of speech. We have the freedom to do, to say and do pretty
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  much what we want within, of course, within our limitations by the law,
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  which we all should, you know, follow.
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  You know, I think about every time we get into the vehicle and we drive and
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  And we can come and go as we please.
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  There are no checkpoints. There are no metal detectors for every 1,000 feet.
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  Not every place we walk into has soldiers. It's not as if we can walk down the
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  sidewalk and hear maybe bombs going off, F-16s flying overhead. No.
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  Here in the United States, we get to enjoy the sweet sounds of birds chirping.
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  You know, we get to hear the wind blow and sometimes the breeze and the children
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  laughing and playing, the sweet sounds of the ice cream trucks coming down our roads.
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  And we take a lot of this for granted. There's a lot of peace in this world.
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  And, you know, as opposed to what we're hearing all over the news.
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  Yes, there's fighting amongst each other. Yes, there's people that don't want
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  to get along because they choose not to respect those in power or vice versa, to be fair.
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  And one of the things that I keep remembering is when I was growing up as a
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  child, I never once worried or thought that we needed to worry about our safety.
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  That was, of course, before 9-11.
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  And even after 9-11, as we started to slowly get back into some type of realism and peace,
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  we noticed that there's so many of us that continue, continue to support our
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  brave men and women and still support the American flag.
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  I remember 9-11, after 9-11 happened, you could not find a flag anywhere.
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  Everybody wanted to support the red white and blue and over time that diminished
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  and then to me the next tragedy of course was covid and we all supported our brave men and women that.
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  Protected us during this horrific pandemic
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  and that was all those that
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  are in the hospitals and then all of
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  a sudden that quickly diminished and they
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  became almost as if the enemy i don't
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  want to get off topic the point i'm making because there is a point is that
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  we should never forget all the individuals that continue to support us to keep
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  us safe to continue to love what they do and save lives as they do it.
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  As a son of a soldier, retired 25-year military,
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  my father, Angel Senior, and to all the brave men and women who have served,
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  who are serving our military, in my family, we thank John and Albert and my dad.
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  We thank all of them. And we thank all of you for doing what you do best in
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  serving this great nation.
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  We ask you now, Lord, to protect every soldier, to protect the families of the
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  soldiers, to protect our way of life, and to allow us to take a moment to honor
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  our Medal of Honor recipients.
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  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, may God be with you.
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  May he shine his light upon you and grant each and every single one of you peace
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  on earth. And never forget, God bless the USA and have faith, let it begin.
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  Thank you for listening to Have Faith, Let It Begin. I'll be back tomorrow.