David Tennessen

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In 1976, I was a young Corporal in the United States Marine Corps with orders from Camp Pendleton to Okinawa. On July 3, I boarded a Flying Tiger aircraft at a Southern California Air Force base. The cabin was filled with Marines. We were young, proud, and headed wherever our country sent us. As we flew west across the Pacific, we crossed the International Date Line. When we landed in Okinawa, it was July 5. July 4, 1976—the 200th birthday of the United States—had simply vanished for me. While millions of Americans celebrated the Bicentennial with parades, fireworks, family gatherings, and flags waving from front porches, I was somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in service to the nation we were all celebrating. I’ve often thought about that. I didn’t get to experience America’s 200th birthday. But in a way, I was exactly where I was supposed to be—serving the country whose birth we were honoring. Perhaps that’s why this Semiquincentennial, our nation’s 250th birthday, feels especially meaningful to me. For a quarter of a millennium, the American experiment has endured through triumphs and trials, through prosperity and hardship, because generation after generation has believed that freedom is worth preserving. Our Founders declared: “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.” Those weren’t just beautiful words. They were revolutionary words. They changed the course of human history and inspired countless people around the world to seek liberty for themselves. The signers of the Declaration concluded by pledging to one another: “…our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Many paid a tremendous price for that promise. Since then, generations of Americans have made that same commitment—in every conflict, in every generation—to preserve the freedoms entrusted to us. As a Marine Corps veteran, and now as Mayor of Camarillo, I don’t take those sacrifices for granted. This Independence Day is different for me. It is a reminder that freedom is never inherited automatically. Every generation is called to protect it, strengthen it, and pass it on. I missed America’s 200th birthday because I was serving her. I am profoundly grateful to celebrate her 250th. Happy Birthday, America. May God continue to bless the United States of America

I had the honor today to attend another solemn and beautiful Memorial Day event at Conejo Mountain Memorial. I believe it is their 58th year of this tribute to the women and men that died in service of our country.