Thank you Gen. McMaster and Bari for reminding us that Memorial Day is not a "holiday." But something different. Where we remember the fallen and their loved ones and the debt we owe them.
I had two additional thoughts.
First of my own father. Who fought in the jungles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea and the Philippines. So many of his generati…
Thank you Gen. McMaster and Bari for reminding us that Memorial Day is not a "holiday." But something different. Where we remember the fallen and their loved ones and the debt we owe them.
I had two additional thoughts.
First of my own father. Who fought in the jungles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea and the Philippines. So many of his generation came back to us with deep but untreated wounds. Wounds that wounded their families. Today we speak of PTSD for every unpleasant event. These men were simply discharged and told to pick up their lives and rebuild our land. We need to honor and understand them and the horrors they endured. Would we have done as well? I don't think so.
Second, my memories now, as on every Memorial Day, drift to my cousin, Sgt. Patrick McDaniel, who was killed in Vietnam (actually the Cambodian invasion) when his jeep was hit by a rocket and he died while giving covering fire to protect his fellow soldiers. I think of him lying now in a peaceful corner of Pennsylvania, while he should be enjoying his grandchildren, as I am. There is, however, a somewhat happy ending to this story. While home on leave, Pat had fathered a son - a boy he never knew. A boy who would grow up to win the award named for Pat at the very high school they both attended. And that night, after the ceremony David's mother confessed the truth to him. The sadness of it all - Pat's broken parents lived and died only a few miles from the grandson they never knew. Life, in all its wonder.
War is cruel. It is ugly. It is not a sporting contest. But we must never forget that "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
Thank you Gen. McMaster and Bari for reminding us that Memorial Day is not a "holiday." But something different. Where we remember the fallen and their loved ones and the debt we owe them.
I had two additional thoughts.
First of my own father. Who fought in the jungles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea and the Philippines. So many of his generation came back to us with deep but untreated wounds. Wounds that wounded their families. Today we speak of PTSD for every unpleasant event. These men were simply discharged and told to pick up their lives and rebuild our land. We need to honor and understand them and the horrors they endured. Would we have done as well? I don't think so.
Second, my memories now, as on every Memorial Day, drift to my cousin, Sgt. Patrick McDaniel, who was killed in Vietnam (actually the Cambodian invasion) when his jeep was hit by a rocket and he died while giving covering fire to protect his fellow soldiers. I think of him lying now in a peaceful corner of Pennsylvania, while he should be enjoying his grandchildren, as I am. There is, however, a somewhat happy ending to this story. While home on leave, Pat had fathered a son - a boy he never knew. A boy who would grow up to win the award named for Pat at the very high school they both attended. And that night, after the ceremony David's mother confessed the truth to him. The sadness of it all - Pat's broken parents lived and died only a few miles from the grandson they never knew. Life, in all its wonder.
War is cruel. It is ugly. It is not a sporting contest. But we must never forget that "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."