Newport Navalog

Labor Day is the sort of American holiday that most of us take for granted. It's the end of summer, the long weekend when people flock to the beaches and the mountains and a lot of them crack themselves up in their hurry to get there and back.

Is it anything more? For those of us in the Navy it should be. In wartime it's our job to do the fighting but without the best in tools and weapons and equipment we could have the valor of lions and still lose the fight.

And it is the American working man who provides these essentials. It is his skill, his resourcefulness, his energy that backs up every member of the Armed Forces. He's proud of his freedom and he knows who guards it. We do.

But it is a mistake to stand off and regard this man as a member of a specialized group. In saluting him we are really saluting ourselves. In protecting his freedom we are guaranteeing our own liberties.

The fact that we wear uniforms instead of coveralls doesn't change the fact that we, too, are workers. Our labor, wherever we are, at home or aboard, is every bit as honorable.

To realize this is to feel a greater bond of kinship with him. Just as he, the American working man, observes Armed Forces Day, so he deserves this day dedicated to his own dignity and effort. (AFPS)