Pool: Remembering those who serve
Today, I wonder how the wives, husbands, children, parents, grandparents, nieces and nephews who have family members serving in the armed services or who have lost someone serving in the armed services are reacting to the day after Memorial Day.
It comes once a year and we move on.
This holiday dates back to just after the Civil War but as the years go by never loses its importance, its value, and the need to remember those who gave their lives for our country.
Those are easy words to say but not so easy for those living the days until their loved one returns home.
I remember how when my first husband was in Vietnam I drew an X over every day on the calendar until he would return to the United States, praying he would make it safely home.
Draftees then basically served a year in a combat zone, none of these redeployments today’s volunteers undergo.
This year I again watched the documentary “Hallowed Ground” on PBS, showing the beautiful American military cemeteries around the world where the fallen were buried. Once again it was so warming to see the people in those countries putting flowers on the graves and remembering those who liberated them.
Although I had seen it before it was still interesting seeing the story about Joyce Kilmer. A poet and sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment (better known as The Fighting 69th), Kilmer was killed at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.
Along with people like George Patton and Theodore Roosevelt, who is buried near his brother Quentin, common people are also recognized, such as brothers who served while their parents were incarcerated in a camp for those of Japanese ancestry, black people who did not have civil rights at home and the Medal of Honor winners. In one cemetery 23 sets of brothers are buried together.
Many Americans were shown visiting the cemeteries, and the beauty and the solemnity of the sacrifice as row after row of crosses were shown made me wish I could visit them too.
In another moving Memorial Day documentary the reporters followed a group in Afghanistan near their end of service there. It followed moment by moment as the group entered a valley known to be a death trap.
Incredible heroism was shown as they tried to save their fellow soldiers. Helicopters desperately tried to land as Taliban gunfire filled the helicopters with holes. Men were bleeding to death as the helicopters frantically tried to come to their rescue. Some of the most beloved members were killed. It later showed the ceremony with the shoes and guns and these brave men breaking into tears at the ceremony.
As citizens we need to remember the fine people we are losing and those coming back with pieces missing. Our lives go on, but we need to remember what they are sacrificing and the sometimes horrific memories they bring back that are hard to overcome.
The least we can do is think about them, appreciate them and say a prayer for them.
