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NAM VET NEWSLETTER | 13 May 1996 | Paul Bylin
MEMORIAL DAY
Memorial Day is their day, isn't it? It is supposed to be the day a
grateful nation pauses to quietly thank the more than one million men
and women who have died in military service to their country since
the Revolutionary War.
Or is it the day the beach resorts kick into high gear for the summer
season, the day the strand is covered by fish-belly white people
basting themselves in coconut oil, the day the off-season rates end
and the weekend you can't get in a seaside seafood restaurant with
anything less than a one hour wait.
Or is is one of the biggest shopping center sales days of the year, a
day when hunting for a parking space is the prime sport for the
holiday stay-at-homers?
Or is it the weekend when more people will kill themselves on the
highways than any other weekend and Highway Patrol troopers work
overtime picking up the pieces?
I think the men and women who died for us would understand what we do
with their day. I hope they would, because if they wouldn't, if they
would have insisted that it be a somber, respectful day of
remembrance, then we have blown it and dishonored their sacrifice.
I knew some of those who died, and the guys I knew would have
understood.
They liked a sunny beach and a cold beer and a hot babe in a black
bikini, too. They would have enjoyed packing the kids, the
inflatable rafts, the coolers, and the suntan lotion in the car and
heading for the lake. They would have enjoyed staying at home and
cutting the grass and getting together with some friends and cooking
some steaks on the grill, too.
But they didn't get the chance. They blew up in the Marine Barracks
in Beirut and died in the oily waters of the Persian Gulf. They
caught theirs at the airstrip in Grenada in the little war everyone
laughed at. They bought the farm in the I Drang Valley and on
Heartbreak Ridge, Phu Bai and at Hue. They froze at the Chosin
Reservoir and were shot at the Pusan Perimeter. They drowned in the
surf at Omaha Beach or fell in the fetid jungles of Guadalcanal.
They were at the Soame and at San Juan Hill and at Gettysburg and
at Cerro Gordo and at Valley Forge.
They couldn't be here with us this weekend, but I think they would
understand that we don't spend the day in tears and heart-wrenching
memorials. They wouldn't want that. Grief is not why they died.
They died so we could go fishing. They died so another father could
hold his laughing little girl over the waves. They died so another
father could toss a baseball to his son in their backyard while the
charcoal is getting white. They died so another buddy could drink a
beer on his day off. They died so a family could get in the station
wagon and go shopping and maybe get some ice cream on the way home.
They won't mind that we have chosen their day to have our first big
outdoor party of the year. But they wouldn't mind, either, if we
took just a second and thought about them.
Some will think of them formally, of course. Wreaths will be laid in
small, sparsely attended ceremonies in military cemeteries and at
monuments at state capitols and in small town's squares. Flags will
fly over the graves, patriotic words will be spoken and a few people
there will probably feel a little anger that no more people showed
up. They'll think no one else remembers.
But we do remember. We remember Smitty and Chico and Davey and the
guys who died. We remember the deal we made: If we buy it, we said,
drink a beer for me.
I'll do it for you, guys. I'll drink that beer for you today, and
I'll sit on that beach for you, and I'll check out the girls for you
and, just briefly, I'll think of you. I won't let your memory spoil
the trip but you'll be on that sunny beach with me today.
I will not mourn your deaths this Memorial Day, my friends. Rather,
I'll celebrate the life you gave me.
This Bud's for you, brother!
I pray that all good people will start a movement to restore
the CORE to our Holidays be it Religion or Veterans service, 4 of July, Presidents etc.
All the young children know what Martin Luther King meaning is!
All of our Traditional Values have been dilute to a fun day.
For many of us we as kids respected the occasion before we played!
What made us a great nation was we showed graditude.
The vacillating minds todays lack a firm direction.
Along with the 11000 vets a day leaving us, so is the foundation of this nation is dying off!
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Great post Loddy!! How sad that the freedom for which they died has been slipping away for decades now. Yes, many Canadians died in WW2 also. At that time we had a military, a very good one. How horrifying it would be to the Canadian heros that their military has been reduced to a joke. A real joke. If they had to go to battle today they might likely be armed with nothing more than a fly swatte, unless they are declared as " dangerous weapons too).!! Their counterparts to the South have, thank GOD, maintained their forces but alas, even so, America's freedoms are slipping away also. Time to get our freedoms back so that none of these fellows will have died in vain.!! I HATE THESE F#%KING LIBERALS - ALL OF THEM, NO MATTER WHICH SIDE OF THE 49 THEY COME FROM!!