The troubles we have pale in comparison to the gifts we've been given by those who died in military service. This Memorial Day, take time to remember their lives, their deaths, and the fact that it is our shared responsibility - now and forever - to be worthy of their sacrifices.
7 comments:
(raises a glass)
(drains the glass)
Didn't mean for my comment above to sound flippant. Today is absolutely sacred for any US citizen who is alive and somewhat cognizant. As the saying goes, freedom isn't free. The father of kids I grew up with died 3 or 4 years ago. He was the nicest, most gentle, and kind man you could hope to know. I knew he was a Marine in WWII, but only near his death, around age 90, did I discover that he was a flamethrower operator on Iwo Jima at age 18. A more valuable target for a sniper than a general. I can only imagine what he went through and what he saw. We, at this juncture, are not worthy.
Memorial Day is a solemn and sacred occasion, which should be observed, NOT celebrated, as parades, concerts, and pageants are inappropriate, for Memorial Day is to remember our military dead, while Veterans Day is intended to celebrate the living veterans with parades, concerts, and comaraderie.
Also, Memorial Day is exclusively a MILITARY holiday, and not the time for families to decorate Great Aunt Martha's grave, or whatever, as there are 364 other days in the year when that can be done.
For me, Memorial Day will always be the 30th of May, never the federally mandated three-day holiday weekend.
Also, Memorial Day began unofficially when a Yankee general observed widows decorating the graves of their Confederate dead, and then plagiarized the custom to create Decoration Day nationwide.
As a proud descendant of a Confederate soldier (i.e., Corporal Jonathan Trueblood, Company C, 77th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 7th Confederate Senior Reserves), it pleases me to point out that by act of Congress, Confederate veterans are now officially considered United States military veterans, with the Confederate flag permitted to be flown from the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, and a wreath presented at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day by the President of the United States of America.
Yes, there is a very impressive Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, surrounded by the graves of Confederate dead, for I have been there and seen it.
Oh, and by the way, the largest Jewish military cemetery outside of Israel is in Richmond, Virginia, where lie the remains of Jewish Confederate soldiers.
@M. Mitchell Marmel & Tricky Ricky- I drank a toast for the fallen at noon today (and it was the "good stuff"). I've heard a lot of stories today, and names of those who gave all. It's very humbling.
@John Robert Mallernee- Thank you for the history of this day, and for your very astute comments about the wrong ways in which this day is observed by many. My email today is flooded with "Memorial Day Sales," and every one of them angers me. One day of remembrance, solemnity, and gratitude shouldn't be too much to ask of people.
My maternal grandfather served in the infantry in France during WWI. He and his buddy, "Shorty", searched through bodies between battles to see if his younger brother, Paul, was among the dead. Paul survived. Grandfather stayed on in France for some time after the war and took courses in international law at the University of Grenoble.
My father was one of 11 children; 9 survived infancy. 4 boys and 5 girls. My father and his 2 younger brothers all enlisted right after 7 December 1941. My father's favorite brother,"Chick", was killed in the Pacific Theatre; his youngest brother, "Billy", lost his right leg at the hip.
I enlisted in 1968. I flew Combat Air Crew(CAC) over Vietnam in 1972. 4 years...gone. I will NEVER forget. Thank you to all who served (about 7% of the population since Korea) and especially thanks to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and their families.
@ RINGGO, Et Alia:
During the Second World War, my father landed on the beach in Normandy (but several days after D-Day), and also served in Korea during that war.
During the Second World War, my stepmother was the 104th female to enlist, and spent the war in Florida watching for enemy aircraft.
Unable to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, I volunteered to be drafted, thus entering the United States Army in 1967.
Trained as a Field Radio Relay and Carrier Equipment Repairman (MOS 31L20), I served a year in Germany, two years in the old Republic of Viet Nam, and a year in Korea (exactly twenty years after my father served there, and in the same command, the Eighth Army).
I probably left Viet Nam around the time you got there.
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