Title
Proclamation welcoming the 709th Tank Battalion Reunion to the City of Pittsburgh, County of Allegheny.
Body
WHEREAS, the Second World War was a global conflict that propelled the United States to international prominence, changed millions of lives around the world forever, and began an era of international peace and stability which the world has continually benefited from in the sixty-two years since the cessation of hostilities; and
WHEREAS, the 709th Tank Battalion served with extraordinary distinction in this War, participated in all five European Campaigns, received 449 awards, and suffered one hundred casualties in the six hundred and fifty man battalion; and
WHEREAS, the memory of these fallen heroes endured in those who survived and came back forever tempered by war to grateful families, friends, communities, where they forever changed those whose lives they touched; and
WHEREAS, those who still remember Utah Beach and the Hurtgen Forest continue to inspire us with the living memory of calls to duty issued and answered, of grievous prices of body and spirit demanded and paid in full, of lives lived and laid down in the service of our nation;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that it is this Council's high honor to welcome the 709th Tank Battalion Reunion to the City of Pittsburgh in the County of Allegheny. May the memories of the 709th Tank Battalion live forever in our hearts and minds, for we truly owe an immeasurable amount of who we are and what we aspire to be to this extraordinary Battalion.