Memorial Day
This is a hard holiday to withstand. I am reminded of the memorials that I attended and the bodies that I carried for before they were flown home. I know people that lie in rest in national cemeteries and stood guard over the bodies before their final journey. I wrote the letters home. Please, if you can at 11:11 today, please stand in a moment of silence for those that gave the last full measure for this country. You may not agree with the war, but those that fought and died are something we all should agree on.
I'm navy, and I always ended the memorial with some navy sayings:
"Ding, Ding. Shipmate coming ashore."
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Here's a salty seamans song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A
I think of Veterans Day as celebrating the sacrificies of everyone who has served. (And yes, I'm a pacifist.) But that doesn't change the long hours, months that the veteran spent away from home, the months of anxiety of the waiting family members...etc.
Most don't give the full measure...but that doesn't mean that they don't give significant parts of themselves in ways that often change them for the rest of their lives.
Too often in the country today, serving is equated with patriotism. The two are very different. One does NOT need to serve to be just as great of a patriot as one who does. Voting, teaching, raising a child, volunteering at the library...are also ways to be just as patriotic.
All of that said, back again...Veterans...in serve in a unique way, that deserves to be recognized. It's not a 9-5 job. Or even 16 hour a day job. It's 24/7/365 the entire time one is enlisted/commisioned. The sacrifices are significant.
Hat's off, or perhaps even screens blank...for all who have or are serving.
Also a pacifist. Hence why I don't like guns. Or have never been in the military.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyKfr8G04Qc
(my father, my uncle, my ex FIL, my ex BIL, etc, etc, etc....have all been in military uniform)
During the time his brother was in Iraq, we'd write him crazy long letters. We'd go to parties/weddings/holidays, and get everyone to add to it...drunk or not. Dave said that he loved reading the letters aloud to his friends. When the letters got to be about ten pages long, I'd mail them off and start another. He got a lot of mail from us.
Sometimes we'd start a joke at the start of the letter, and not realize that we hadn't ended it by the end. So it would be months before he learned that Gil wasn't marrying the babysitter. (oops...)
I already have flags out front. Various relatives and friends have served, and were fortunate to return home or retire from the service. Others were not as fortunate, but were willing to give their all so we could be safe. Thor, I can not imagine the difficulty of telling those families. I have been to the war walls and other monuments. The seemingly endless names strike a chord in the hearts of all that do so.
Always take that brief moment to thank anyone in uniform who risks their lives to keep us safe.
Thank you all. I know a lot of military serving officers that are pacifists. We have seen the horrors of war up close and personal. We do not wish that upon any man.
Service changed me, and I left part of my soul overseas in the sand of Arabia. I work my TDoc to get that part back. I wonder if I ever will. I see the nightmares often of my buddies and I know those visions will never stop.