It starts with silence.
A pause. A moment. A stillness that falls over a crowded cemetery or quiet living room, a parade route or a backyard barbeque. At exactly 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, the nation stops to remember. For one minute, we are united not by politics or profession, but by reverence. That minute is sacred. Because Memorial Day is not about a sale, a getaway, or a grill. It is about a promise. A promise to remember those who gave everything so that the rest of us could have anything at all.
We remember Sergeant First Class Paul Smith, who gave his life in Iraq, shielding his fellow soldiers. We remember Corporal Jason Dunham, a Marine who threw himself on a grenade in Iraq, saving his comrades and sacrificing his life in the process. We remember the nameless, the countless, the brave. The ones who never came home.
At the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC), this day is not an abstraction. It’s not distant. It lives in our work and mission every single day. Because behind every flag-draped coffin is a family—one our members likely served. A spouse whose joint account we help manage. A child with a savings account that they opened at a branch on base. A grieving parent we helped navigate the SGLI insurance claim.
We are not just credit unions. We are military credit unions. Our roots are in service, and our mission is defined by the unique challenges and honor that come with serving the financial needs of those who serve this country. Defense credit unions operate where our military lives: on bases, in overseas installations, near VA hospitals, and in the heartbeat of our veteran communities. This work is not peripheral to Memorial Day. It is part of the legacy that Memorial Day commemorates.
To understand Memorial Day, we must look back to its origins. Before it became a federal holiday in 1971, Memorial Day began in the ashes of the Civil War. Known first as Decoration Day, Americans, many of them formerly enslaved people and grieving mothers, gathered to honor Union and Confederate dead alike. They laid flowers, sang hymns, and read the names aloud. It was not a political act, but a human one. A defiant insistence that death in service to country must never be met with silence.
Today, that tradition continues. From the white stones of Arlington to small-town monuments etched with names only locals know, we gather. We decorate. We remember.
But the true power of Memorial Day is not just in remembering—it is in what we do with the memory. For DCUC, that means action. It means being there not just on the worst day in a military family’s life, but on every day after that. It means ensuring access to safe, affordable, and mission-aligned financial services that meet the needs of a military life—a life that moves frequently, that deals with deployments, that faces injury, trauma, transition, and sometimes tragedy.
It means defending those who defend us.
That is why we advocate fiercely. For fair treatment under financial regulations. For the preservation of the credit union tax status that allows us to serve without a profit motive. For the field of membership expansions that ensure veterans and their families are not left behind. And most of all, for the respect and recognition our service members have earned in life and deserve in death.
To walk through the halls of a defense credit union is to witness a different kind of patriotism. It’s not loud or boastful. It’s a teller who recognizes a new widow and helps her with compassion. It’s a loan officer who understands that PCS orders come fast and that credit decisions must come faster. It’s a CEO who began as a soldier and now leads a team committed to taking care of his own. That is Memorial Day to us. It is not an event. It is our ethic.
This Memorial Day, I hope you take a moment to reflect. Not just on the names etched in marble or bronze, but on the meaning behind those names. Reflect on the idea that freedom is not free, and that the bill is paid by the brave. And know that behind each of those brave men and women are institutions like ours—quietly, humbly, and resolutely carrying forward the values they died for.
Honor. Service. Duty. Commitment.
We carry those words in our mission statements and in our actions. Because every dollar we safeguard, every member we serve, every regulation we challenge or support—it is all part of honoring them.
So no, Memorial Day is not just another day off. It is the most solemn of obligations. It is a national vow that those who gave their last full measure of devotion will never be forgotten.
At DCUC, we are proud to be part of that vow. And we will never stop serving those who serve.
May we remember. And may we be worthy of their sacrifice.
