Reflection on Liberty - A Call to Civic Duty

Note: The following is a summary of the “Reflection on Liberty,” offered by Trinity Academy parent, Commander Mark Silbernagel, U.S. Navy (Retired), at the All-School “Honoring America” Special Assembly, Trinity Academy, September 11th, 2025, at 8:45 AM CST.

 Good morning, Students, Faculty, and Parents. 

 I’ll begin by briefly describing why we have a Navy and what it does.  The United States is a maritime nation, meaning that we naturally conduct a great deal of business over the oceans, due to our extensive coastlines on two oceans.  We have an inherent need to provide security for that ocean-going trade, so we’ve had a significant Navy from the beginning.  During war, the Navy also has the duty to defend our nation from attack over the water and, elsewhere, to project power ashore.  For these reasons, we have the largest Navy in the world, currently made up of nearly 300 ships and about 4,000 aircraft operated by 350,000 sailors.  On any given day, 100 ships and submarines are sailing the oceans.  Our largest modern warships are aircraft carriers, which host about 80 airplanes and helicopters.  They are floating airports with a small runway on the top so airplanes can take off and land.  To run the airport, there are around 5,000 people living aboard the ship: so, it’s practically a city at sea.

It should be noted that a Navy pilot is a Naval Officer first.  This means that a Navy pilot spends more time in leading, managing and working at desks than flying airplanes.  Mr. Sommers, our K-12 Lead Administrator, mentioned three airplanes from my career during his introduction.  One of those, the C-2 Greyhound, is what I was flying in 2001.  It’s a medium sized transport airplane designed to carry passengers and cargo to our aircraft carriers.  To give you a sense of its size, it can carry 30 people including passengers and crew. 

We’re here to commemorate the 24th anniversary of September 11th, 2001.  Since some of the youngest haven’t heard much about that yet, I’ll give a short summary of what happened.  A group of men who hated our country and wanted to hurt us came to America and managed to take control of four passenger airplanes.  They deliberately crashed those airplanes and hit three buildings.  Almost 3000 Americans were killed that day, and more died in the following years from illness due to toxic exposure to smoke and dust. 

There are certain events in our lives we remember well.  September 11th is something I still remember clearly.  I was living in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and I was scheduled to practice carrier landings in the C-2 airplane I described.  We would go to an airport on land and pretend it’s an aircraft carrier for practice.  I was in my apartment getting ready to go to work and I had the tv on as I ate breakfast.  I saw the news that a plane had hit a skyscraper in New York City.  I thought it was a strange and awful mishap on a clear day, but since I was busy getting ready, I didn’t spend much time on it.  Then, while driving to the airport, I heard about a second plane hitting another building next to the first, and I immediately understood this was an attack, not an accident.  Everybody did.  Our government immediately began taking steps to respond and prevent further attacks.  All airplanes in the country were instructed to land and nobody was allowed to take off.  Only a few military airplanes stayed in the air.  Since we were just training, we cancelled our remaining landing practice, and I did not fly that day. 

The next day I flew.  One of the other things our government did was to park two aircraft carriers off the east coast near NYC and Washington, DC, the two cities that were targeted.  These ships and their aircraft were to guard against any unauthorized flights, since we didn’t know if additional attacks might be planned.  On September 12th, I flew the C-2 with a crew to bring people and cargo to the USS George Washington, which was near NYC.  That day was unlike any other flying day in my entire career.  Normally when we fly, there are lots of airplanes in the sky, especially on the east coast near those busy cities.  On a clear day we see many airplanes, and every day we hear plenty of chatter on the radio as pilots talk to Air Traffic Control about routes and clearances.  That day we were among just a few military aircraft flying.  The radios were utterly silent, except for our own communications with somber Air Traffic Controllers.  It was eerie.  The other weird thing was that the ship is normally so far off the coast that you see nothing but water in all directions, but this time it was so close to the coast that we could see both the ship and NYC well.  From downtown, the black smoke was still pouring into the sky, a day after the buildings fell.  That morning, I had seen that smoke on TV.  I knew it was real, but it was hundreds of miles away.  When I saw it in person, the image on the screen was turned into something much more real for me.  I think that smoke continued for several weeks.

So, there are big events in our lives which we remember easily.  I think that yesterday is another day that I will remember, because a well-known Christian radio host and podcaster, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated.  My daughter met him and even challenged his position on the Ten Commandments during a Q&A at a youth leadership camp she attended.  Although he disagreed with her, he was gracious in his response, and I will hold onto that. 

My vivid memory of 9-11 is much different than yours.  You weren’t born yet, and you must think of it as an abstract historical event found only in books.  That’s how I think about the Revolutionary War; but that’s not how the Americans who lived through it thought about it.  For them it was a massive part of their lives.  They lost loved ones but gained freedom from England.  They would have to remember that with vivid emotion.  What about black Americans and the Civil War?  Before it, many were slaves and after it they were free.  So, their perspective would be much different than ours over 150 years later.   It’s just not as easy for us to think so seriously about these events or about the value of freedom; but we must. 

Why must we?  What is freedom? 

“Freedom, as opposed to slavery”

“Exemption from tyranny or excessive government.”

Freedom to choose.

We know slavery is bad and liberty is good.  That’s common sense.  But how common is each?  In reality, despite our experience, tyranny and slavery are the most common ways of society.  Liberty is extremely rare.  Our life in the United States is not normal.  Slavery to modern Americans is a distant concept and not easily relatable, because most of us have not personally witnessed it.  This is not so for most people in history and even for many people in other countries today.  Tragically, even in America today, some people are treated as slaves, but it’s not well known.

We know that liberty is Divine.  2 Corinthians 3:17 says “Now the Lord is a Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

The Founders understood this when they wrote the Declaration of Independence: “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.”

Even though liberty comes from God, it is not easily attained or preserved.  When asked what form of government the Constitutional Convention had formed, Benjamin Franklin answered, “A Republic…if you can keep it.”  Why did he say this?  [Because] it’s very difficult for the people to keep the focus and energy to guard against a government sliding toward tyranny, which is its natural state. 

We are blessed with peace and prosperity.  We live busy lives, we get comfortable, and we take liberty for granted.  Also, when we occasionally do think about threats to our country, we likely think about outside threats from other nations.  We think about war.  There’s an image that’s been around for a long time which has been on posters and t-shirts.  Today we would call it a meme.  It’s the silhouette of an aircraft carrier and the text says: “90,000 Tons of Diplomacy.”  It illustrates that when we think of preserving our way of life, we think about our military keeping external dangers at bay. 

[But] I tell you, the more dangerous threats come from within, because humans run our government.  Power corrupts.  Ill-intentioned people get greedy and use the government for their own purposes.  A few enter office with good intentions and even hold to those intentions, but they may still ruin things by accident.  So, we must watch for trouble inside our country where we may not expect it. 

I described for you my military service.  That’s one way of serving our nation and preserving liberty, but, in reality, it’s regular civic service that is most important. 

What do I mean by that?   As citizens, we must be engaged in how we are governed.  We must stay informed and provide our input to our elected representatives; we must vote; some of us need to work in government.  We must stay on guard and educate others about our history and about the important things happening today.  I’m grateful that your teachers are serving us all in this way.

Today, Charlie Kirk is the best example I can think of for someone who understood and embraced duty to civic service.  He did his homework, and he told the truth.  He educated people, and he reported corruption.  Yesterday, he gave his life.  He’s an American hero.  A Christian hero.  A martyr.

Here’s the lesson I hope you’ll take from this.  When high-impact memories are fresh, it’s easy to remember them and their significance, but it’s very difficult when they fade.  We must never forget, because it’s these memories that keep us alert and engaged.

The most important thing you can do, especially as students, to ensure liberty for your own future and for following generations:  Seek to understand history, appreciate the blessing of liberty, and deliberately remember what’s important, even if it’s not your own memory.

I have a homework exercise for you.  Find time this month to ask your parents, grandparents, or someone else older than you to tell you about an important event that happened during their lives, which they remember with clarity because of its impact.  Ask them to tell you everything they can remember.

This will help you gain personal connection to our history and have more than a remote story in a history book to ponder.    Thank you and may God bless you.

 A “Reflection on Liberty,” offered by Trinity Academy parent, Commander Mark Silbernagel, U.S. Navy (Retired), at the Trinity Academy “Honoring America” Special Assembly,

September 11th, 2025, 8:45 AM (CST), Pewaukee, WI, USA.