Known only to God

 International Picture of the Year.
Here are three very touching photos honored this year. 

First Place 
Todd Heisler, The Rocky Mountain News

When 2nd Lt. James Cathey's body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine's casket last year at Denver International Airport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as so powerful: 'See the people in the windows? They sat right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home,' he said. 'They will remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They're going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should.'

Second Place

Todd Heisler, The Rocky Mountain News

The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of 'Cat,' and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept.

 'I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it,' she said.

'I think that's what he would have wanted'. 

Third Place 

 "Son, a grateful Nation...." 

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I.

One died for our soul, the other for our freedom.

“I deeply appreciate those who have sacrificed their lives for the cause of human liberty. I hate war, with all its mocking panoply. It is a grim and living testimony that Satan, the father of lies, the enemy of God, lives. War is earth’s greatest cause of human misery. It is the destroyer of life, the promoter of hate, the waster of treasure. It is man’s costliest folly, his most tragic misadventure. “American statesman Charles Sumner, commenting on the cost of war, once said: ‘Give me the money that has been spent on war, and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens would be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship, consecrated to the gospel of peace.’ “But since the day that Cain slew Abel, there has been contention among men. There always have been-and until the Prince of Peace comes to reign, there always will be-tyrants and bullies, empire builders, slave seekers, and despots who would destroy every shred of human liberty if they were not opposed by force of arms. Their names too often read as the names of heroes. Their conquests might more truly be told in the terrible suffering they have imposed as they have marched with their legions to enslave the weak. ……

Can anyone in a free land be less than grateful for those who have given their lives that liberty might flourish? “I have stood at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, where are remembered those who have died for the freedom of the United States. I have stood by the Cenotaph at Whitehall in London, where are remembered the dead of Britain. I have seen the flame that always burns beneath the Arch of Triumph in Paris, in remembrance of the men of France who died in the cause of freedom. At each of these sacred places I have felt a deep and moving sense of gratitude to those there remembered. I have stood beside my own brother’s grave in the U.S. military cemetery in Suresnes, France, and thanked the Lord for the liberty preserved by the sacrifices of those who gave their lives in the cause of human liberty. I have walked reverently on that quiet ground known as the Punch Bowl in Hawaii, where lie the remains of thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice. “When we opened the work of the Church in the Philippines, we had no place to meet for our sacred services, so we asked the American embassy for the privilege of meeting in the cemetery at Fort McKinley, on the outskirts of Manila. To me, that quiet, green, and beautiful ground is hallowed. There, row on row in perfect symmetry, stand more than fifteen thousand marble crosses and many of the Stars of David, each marking the final resting place of a man who gave his life. Encircling that sacred ground are two marble colonnades, extending from either side of a beautiful chapel. These stone colonnades are inscribed with the names of thirty-five thousand men who died in the battles of the Pacific but whose remains were never found: ‘Comrades in arms whose resting place is known only to God.’… “I know many of our brethren who are in the service of their country today, and I have been with them in many lands. I have heard their expressions of faith. I have wept with them as they have stood and borne testimony of their knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are no better Latter-day Saints anywhere on earth than many of those in uniform, and there are faithful representatives of this church in the armed forces of many nations. .

“May the Lord bless our brethren in the service, wherever they may be, for their faithfulness. May the Lord remind us of the debt of gratitude we owe them, and may he awaken within us a resolution to live worthy of their sacrifice.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

“No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, God will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character to do so. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come….”

George Q. Cannon