The Humblest Rank, The Highest Honor

Photo: Lloyd A. Erickson, PFC, U.S. Army, WWII — Hegland Lutheran Church Cemetery, Hawley, Minnesota.

On a trip back home, my wife and I visited the graves of our parents. As I looked around the cemetery, something struck me.
So many of the gravestones bore just a name, a pair of dates — and three simple letters: PFC.

No mention of careers, accomplishments, or the families they raised. Just Private First Class.

It stopped me.
These men and women had lived full lives. They worked hard, raised children, served their communities, built businesses, taught in schools, and cheered at Friday night games. Many surely did extraordinary things. Yet when it came time to sum up a lifetime in stone, they asked only to be remembered by their service — by those few years when they wore the uniform of our nation.

They did not express envy of those whose stones might list Sergeant, Captain, Major, or Colonel.
They didn’t list a political party.
What struck me was that so many simply read PFC — the most modest of ranks, yet worn with unmistakable pride.

And if they had served in a conflict, their tombstones would also bear its name — World War II, Korea, Vietnam. Those words, too, speak volumes. They remind us that these Americans did not just serve their country — they fought in causes that liberated others and advanced the frontiers of freedom around the world.

As I once said in honoring the veterans of Normandy, “The legacy of our veterans lives on across the world in the ever-expanding frontiers of freedom we have long enjoyed and other countries are now enjoying for the first time.”

The men and women whose graves I saw that day helped make that possible. Their courage was not for conquest, but for liberty. Their victory was not for themselves alone, but for all who would one day breathe free.

It makes me wonder: how many today would do the same?
How many understand the humility, unity, and quiet pride behind those three letters — PFC?

They gave their youth to defend our freedom and to advance the cause of freedom for others. Are we, by our actions, honoring their sacrifice?
Are we living up to their legacy — a legacy not of rank or partisanship, but of shared duty and quiet dignity?

This Veterans Day, may we remember not only the heroes whose names we know, but the Privates First Class whose humility carried the load — and may we live in a way that keeps the nation, and the freedoms they fought for, worthy of their trust.