New Hampshire’s mid-November air is crisp and carries a certain stillness — a calm before the first storms of winter. On Veterans Day, that stillness and calm take me back to the very beginning. New Hampshire is the home of the American Revolution, home of the United States Constitution, and my family’s home for more than a century. Here we live by our motto: “Live Free or Die.”
You see and hear a love of country everywhere you go in New Hampshire — from the granite memorials honoring fallen heroes that stand at the heart of nearly every town and city across our state to the sounds of bugles playing the twenty-four notes of Taps that play each and every summer night in our State Veterans Cemetery.
The stillness and calm of Veterans Day take me back to my own decision to serve, a decision rooted in the values I learned growing up here: community, citizenship, and the belief that our democracy is not something you watch from the sidelines. And I’m reminded of a lesson I learned not in uniform, but in the swimming pool at the Nashua YMCA. As a kid, I was a terrible swimmer and struggled to pass even the most basic swim test. But I made a promise to my dad Ted, a proud veteran of the United States Navy, that I would stick with it. And that childhood lesson in perseverance was foundational years later when I had to pass the United States Navy’s swim test to become an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve.
The stillness and calm of Veterans Day take me back to my own decision to serve, a decision rooted in the values I learned growing up here: community, citizenship, and the belief that our democracy is not something you watch from the sidelines.
For more than a decade, I had the honor of wearing our nation’s uniform and working alongside Americans from every conceivable background. Our differences — whether rooted in geography, politics, or faith — faded away in the face of a shared mission and the deep-seated trust that you build with the person to your left and your right who has also raised their hand and taken an oath, not to a person or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Veterans Day is a profound and personal reminder for us, as Americans, to reflect on the sacred promise we made to care for our veterans, servicemembers, and military families.
Honoring this sacred promise is not a partisan exercise. It is an American imperative. I learned this from Senator John McCain, a true American hero who showed me that service to our country always comes before service to any party. That is the spirit I’m working to bring to the United States Congress every day.
This sacred promise must be expressed in meaningful policy by the United States Congress. When we empower our veterans, we are not just delivering what is deserved — we are making a strategic investment in our nation’s economy and future competitiveness.
When we empower our veterans, we are not just delivering what is deserved — we are making a strategic investment in our nation’s economy and future competitiveness.
That’s why I am proud to work hand-in-hand with my Republican colleagues in Congress to lead commonsense legislation to help veterans translate their world-class military experience into college credits. It’s a practical solution that honors our veterans by saving them — and the American taxpayer — time and money entering America’s workforce. Service takes a toll — both mentally and physically. That’s why I am helping lead common-sense and bipartisan legislation that will cut the red tape that has prevented our disabled veterans from getting the medically necessary equipment they need to travel safely.
Our sacred promise and shared mission extend to military families, who are the backbone and beating heart of our all-volunteer force. It is a matter of basic fairness that military families have the same access to healthcare as their civilian neighbors. That’s why I am helping to lead a bipartisan bill to allow military kids to stay on their parents’ healthcare until they turn 26, just like on private insurance plans. We cannot expect to recruit and retain the world’s finest fighting force if we do not provide for their families.
Freedom is not free. No one knows that more than our servicemembers, veterans, and military families. Honoring them requires more than a parade or a plaque on a single day in November. It requires the daily, bipartisan work of ensuring the American Dream is theirs. This is our sacred promise, shared mission, and a measure of our character as a nation. On this Veterans Day, let’s honor our sacred promise and recommit ourselves to that shared mission. May God bless our troops, and may God bless the United States of America.
Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander has dedicated her life to public service. Before taking the oath of office to represent New Hampshire in the United States House of Representatives, she served as a foreign policy advisor to Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman in the United States Senate. Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander served in the United States Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer for over a decade, holding the rank of Lieutenant. She brings the experience from her 11 years of service to her work in the United States Congress every single day.