Memorial Day - It is about honoring those sacrifices
While they are debts we cannot repay, we honor them by helping to ensure that the next generation receives what our heroes have given so much for.
Indeed, most have little knowledge of or connection to the Memorial Day events. First, an extended weekend of the summer, and most will be pondering something other than Memorial Day. It is a realism that those who have served this country in uniform and their families are less than 1% of the population. Most people today would not be able to tell you why we celebrate Memorial Day.
This weekend our cities will be decorated with cookouts, and the American flag will be hovering along downtown streets all across America. There will be memorial ceremonies held at National Cemeteries and small local cemeteries, where veterans' bodies are buried beneath broad, trimmed fields marked with long, rigid lines of white marker objects.
Some people will gather together in those places of rest around the country to remember their family members who perished in service. Others will come to pay tribute to all who have served the country in instances of war and times of peace. The flag will be raised formally as the National Anthem plays or sung. The resonant, melancholy notes of "Taps" will waft over the silent grounds. The old veterans in attendance recognized by their baseball hats emblazoned with military branch symbols or with the names of the wars, he/she entered. They will stand at difficult attention and salute at raising the flag or for the duration of the playing of "Taps." Their eyes and cheeks may be wet with tears because they will remember fallen brothers and sisters in ways most cannot imagine.
Why, then, should we all remember?
It is not wars that we remember with this national holiday. Instead, we remember those who served and those who gave their last full measure of devotion to ensure that the freedoms that this nation offers to all would be able to be handed on to the following generations. We think of them because they tell us something about our human nobility. They remind us of the price of freedom and the quality of our integrity as a nation. We do not gather together on this holiday to glorify wars. Somewhat, we are challenged to remember that some are willing to give their all to defend this nation when war comes unbidden to us. Deep down, we want to learn how we will find ways to avert wars and never once more have to fight them again. There is, among veterans, no more expected desire than the desire that their sons and daughters will never have to suffer the horrors of war or the effects of war.
When I lay me down
Bury me somewhere I served
Let my ashes burn the earth
Please forgive me for the lives I took.
Moreover, all I ask,
There is a second look.
On my 18th birthday, I graduated from basic training.
At 19, I was trained to fly and scale buildings.
At 20, I graduated as an elite Army Ranger.
On my 21st birthday, the creed "to never leave a man behind" was the point of no return in Mogadishu, Somalia.
As the day slowly turned to dusk,
I knew retaliation was a must.
As a fighter, it is not our job
To question the politics behind the conflict.
It is our job to execute.
The line was drawn
Moreover, I knew it would not belong
Before the impossible task and weapons began to fire.
As a true patriot and a prior member of the United States Army, I would have gladly died in battle protecting my home. I love my nation more than my own life. A man can do the most honorable thing: lay down his life for his country and his loved ones. Like those heroes who spilled their blood-fighting in War World I & II, I, too, would forfeit everything to win for a country the right to have freedom. The truth is that many countries don't have the true freedom as American's enjoy. I only remorse that I have but one life to lose for but one country. I would not hesitate to give my life for or against any other noble country. Come to think of it, I've been caught in the crossfire during a heroic peacekeeping effort; I just prayed that if I encountered death that it would have been in some way related to a country for freedom and independence. I only ask that I'd be given a soldier's funeral so that I may be buried holding the flag for our great country that I was fighting for. The bottom line is that the current borders of a country are worth defending at all costs. Otherwise, what would so many courageous and patriotic lost their lives on behalf of? I was fortunate enough to be a native of one of the most powerful nations in the world, and I swore myself long ago that I would never disregard it. I had the privilege of protecting this great land against whoever may seek to do it harm and defend some other country against whoever may seek to do it harm. There comes a period when all of us, no matter who we are, heed the call to the battlefield. We cannot and should not ignore a call, no matter where it is coming from.
Moreover, if I must die, in the service of this or that country, I only hope I can at least take as many of the enemy with me as possible before I fall and breathe my last. Unless, of course, they're also fighting for a country. In which case, their deaths, at my hands, will have been honorable—because they, like me, would have died for a country. Our soldier's deaths in the countless wars we constantly wage to defend our own country against others defending their own country against us would seem arbitrary, almost meaningless. However, as long as we have a higher purpose—the love of whatever country we happen to be fighting for—we will always know we did not lose our lives in vain.
As our country grows tired of the war, my heart aches merely. With every death, I find myself questioning why. The purpose we went to Iraq was for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then, it was freeing the Iraqi people. Then, it was fighting the terrorists in Iraq and now Afghanistan rather than America. I struggle with stomaching the politics behind the war, but the results of our military enamor me. Then, it was let us giving the Iraqi people freedom. Now, politicians say let us fight the terrorists there and not on American soil. Soldiers do not care about the cause. We are fighting for the person on our left and right. You form a bond so tight with fellow soldiers that you never want to let them down. I have seen it displayed every day. Once, I was in Tal Afar for a large-scale, three-day operation. We had birds, 101st Airborne Infantry, and artillery, but the fighting always comes down to the individual soldier and his weapon. In Avgoni, nearby Tal Afar, we were moving toward the objective through the very dense terrain. Tall trees, thick brush, and long vines were everywhere. It was so green because of human crap, which flowed to the bottom of the hills and fertilized what appeared more like a jungle than an Iraqi village.
Nevertheless, the enemy knew the terrain, and we did not. They posted white T-shirts on the smaller trees, which looked like a person from a distance, setting a trap that we walked right into. At the other end of these decorated trees were about three or four men with AKs and RPGs. When the squad moved into the open zone, the enemy opened fire, nailing the squad leader in each leg. As one of Ranger's fell to the ground, he didn't moan in pain; he fired back, killing an insurgent gunner just as he was about to fire an RPG into the squad. Because of this soldier, the man on his left and right are still alive, including me.
I have lost so many friends. However, at the same time, years from now, when I meet with the children of my fallen friends, I do not want to tell them that their father/mother died for oil or politics. Instead, I will tell them their father/mother fought for their freedom, for all Americans. "I think you and all of the soldiers know that...and this is the reason they continue to soldier on. Stay Alert and Stay Alive…