There are two images that always come to mind on Memorial Day:
(Photo credits: Todd Heisler/The Rocky Mountain News, via Associated Press, unknown)
They are concrete examples of two sacrifices: the man that put himself into harm’s way for his country and for his buddies and sacrificed himself for them, and the sacrifice that loved ones go through as a result of the “they gave all”. No one demands the first, the second is always feared and never wanted. A lot of people will say that “Freedom is not free” – these two young widows know full well the heavy cost of our Freedom.
Since the day that I watched, from the end of the driveway, the Eldest go off to Marine Boot camp (and then on to Iraq), Memorial Day has become personal. Oh to be sure, I’ve always understood the meaning and the significance of the day, but that day, it became visceral. It was only added to when the Youngest went to Army boot camp and then into the 101st and spent a year in Afghanistan. At that point, our family was the 1% – the approximate number of families actually serving in the armed forces.
I gratefully can say that my sons came home. No, not exactly the same boys that left our hamlet now a few years ago – they saw the effect of war, and in the Youngest’s case, up front and personal. They both lost buddies – one more than the other – so they know what that sacrifice is all about. There is also that toll that will be an on-going sacrifice for years to come in the stories that they will never tell me willingly and bout which I will never ask them. On one’s shoulders, I can tell, those stories lay very hard indeed even as they remain untold, and all I can do as a Dad is just be there, just waiting for the time that I can help – or when I MUST help; my heart aching to do and fearful of the time I must.
In that left hand image, in the shadows, stands a Marine in full dress uniform at the head of the casket, standing guard and always ready. Although I can’t find that story, when I first remember reading it, after arranging for the mattress for his comrade’s wife, he stood there all night long in that position in case that young Marine widow needed anything else that night. He didn’t have to – it was done out of a sense of duty and a sense of honoring one of his own and their loved one. Always faithful.
We should be mindful, this day and any day, to be faithful as well, ready to stand by our military heroes, our fallen, and the sacrifices that their families make on our behalf. That is our duty, and it should be our honor to willingly do. And this is a day when we should also remember those organizations and individuals, like that Marine, that do watch over those that serve and the ones they love, even though they themselves would have no other connection to them.
Thank you, and may God bless. And I am thankful for the Groksters that have served their nation in uniform: Tim, Rick, Mike, and Don. I am the one that is honored by your service.