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Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday to urge tens of thousands of conservative activists to honor the men and women in the military.

The former Alaska governor said she was speaking not as a politician but as the mother of a combat veteran. Evoking the legacies of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and former presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Palin called on Americans to restore traditional values to the country by celebrating those who have fought for the nation's freedoms.

"We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want," Palin said at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington. "We must restore America and restore her honor."

Palin spoke of restraining evil and protecting "God-given liberty."

"These giants who are linked by a solid-rock foundation of faith in the one true god of justice," Palin said.

Recalling Americans who fought at Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, the Republican called the military "a force for good in this country." She honored three military veterans, hugging them onstage and telling the crowd to look to them as inspiration.

"Here today, at the crossroads of our history, may this day be the change point," Palin said. "Look around you. You're not alone. You are Americans! You have the same steel spine and moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them."

The crowd responded with chants of "USA! USA! USA!"