While the Brandywine Battlefield Park and the Chadds Ford Historical Society held smaller daytime events on Saturday, Brinton Run had its own event that evening featuring a former four-star general.
That speaker was Gen. John P. Jumper, retired United States Air Force four-star general, the 17th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force.
Along with the speakers was a light fare of hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, and refreshments, along with the celebration of a gift from Mitigation Resources of North America, a replica Verbruggen Revolutionary War cannon.
Jomer noted with some irony that his first full day on the job as Air Force Chief of Staff was 9/11. “It was a short honeymoon,” he noted.
“You can’t come to a place like this without feeling that you’re in the presence of those who sacrificed. And because of the sacrifice on this very ground, we can, all of us can enjoy the abundances of liberty and freedom that they delivered to us for us to enjoy,” Jumper said, reflecting on Brinton Run Preserve, part of the battlefield of the Battle of Brandywine.
He brought up the significance of the month of May, a month with several significant days, such as Memorial Day and Victory in Europe Day, when German forces surrendered to the Allies to end the European theater of combat in WWII. He noted that more than 40 million people died in that war.
“We also have Mother’s Day in May. Which is another reminder of those who grieve losses at the hand of war,” he added.
He then noted that we are now less than two months away from “the 250th birthday of the nation and what I believe is a solemn obligation to reflect. On the bounty of being citizens of the greatest nation on earth. Often, our most profound insights into these things. The things that really matter are the simplest stories that seem to resonate in our soul.”
Jumper took the attendees back in time to the War of Independence, and told the story of a colonial soldier named Benjamin Warner, and of Warner’s knapsack. Swarner enlisted in 1775 and kept that knapsack with him for decades. Jumper then read a note Warner had written.
“This knapsack I carried through the order of a revolution in achieving their codependency. I transmit to my oldest son, Benjamin Warner Junior, with directions to keep it and transmit it to his oldest son. And so on to the latest posterity. And whilst 1 shred of it shall remain, never surrender your liberties to a foreign endeavor or inspiring demagogue.
Then he continued in his own words:
“This simple note, although addressed to his family, also speaks to all of us. For me, it grabs us through the centuries. In the form of a simple knapsack, he commands our attention. What are our obligations to pursue that promise of a more perfect union, to secure a future that echoes the spirit of Benjamin Warner, to embrace that greater good which should attend our thoughts of family, of nation, and the bounty of the surroundings?
“We honor these obligations when we serve our communities, when we help those who have less. When we volunteer, when we live with integrity, when we respect one another even when we disagree, when we vote, when we stay informed, when we refuse to let cynicism replace responsibility, when we teach our children that freedom comes with duty.”
Warner’s knapsack is now on display at the Ticonderoga Museum of New York. It’s behind glass, too fragile to be touched, but Jumper sees it as a reminder of “the fragile nature of freedom and liberty that requires constant mental image and energy for all of us to protect.”
He went on to note that our founders understood the messiness of the Republic they were building and acknowledged the imperfection when they wrote in the Constitution, “to build a more perfect human. Not a perfect union, a more perfect one. They were telling us that it describes the counts, the hard work of debate, compromise, renewal, and vigilance. So today we remember. Not only by looking back, but by looking inward. And then with clear eyes, by committing ourselves to a future worthy of those who gave themselves for the good of all of us. If we live up to these applications, these obligations consciously care if we do our duty and our time.”
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
