Fightdirecto
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Joined: 8/3/2004
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There are certain days each year that affect me strongly, and Memorial Day is one of them. I think of all the men and women who I served with during my 27 years in the active Army and in the Army Reserves (1969-1996) who have gone on to a better place.
I found this on the Internet - and I share it with you all.
quote:
Soldiers are not chunks of identical clay; each of them has a story, their own reasons for being caught in a war.
Brave? Maybe – sometimes, under some conditions. Scared, mostly. The younger they are, the more likely their presence had to do with restlessness, cockiness. The need to be part of a winning team, the desire to even a score. Kick ass, take names. Kill them all, let God sort them out.
The older they are, the more realistic they are. This was a steady paycheck, or a way to supplement the one they already had. When they join, it’s with their eyes on the future benefit. When they’re in the middle of a war, they think only of surviving the next five minutes. "Please, God, please. Let me see my family again."
And when they die in the war, each death leaves a hole in the world. It’s important to remember that, to not see them as a monolithic casualty list or as an acceptable loss.
No loss is acceptable. Ask the parents, the spouses, the children. They try. They tell themselves stories of nobility, sacrifice, a greater cause. They cover it up with the ritual rhetoric. But deep down, they must wonder.
Here is how to count the cost: In high school graduation pictures that will never be replaced with wedding pictures. In wedding rings that will never be worn smooth by years. By the daughters who will walk down the aisle with an uncle or brother instead of Dad. By the sons who will find themselves angry and lost, not understanding why. The children who will hear about their mother’s eyes, their father’s chin but won’t ever see themselves reflected in that face.
By the parents who now understand the quiet obscenity of outliving their own children.
Each and every one of these deaths left a hole in the world. That is why we count them.
They mattered.
For each death, a hole in the world
Someone asked me earlier today, knowing that I was a Veteran and had served, among other places, in Vietnam:
quote:
I'm so confused about what they all died for, and whether or not they should have.
I answered,
quote:
Sometimes I am confused about what they died for as well, but we stood side by side in the face of danger, facing it together, and I honor them for that.
For as Shakespeare had Henry say, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."
And they will always be my brothers and sisters until I join them, wherever that place is (Heaven or Hell - I have friends in both places).
Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend - but please don't forget why you got the day off from work to be with your family.
_____________________________
"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.””
- Ellie Wiesel
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Memorial Day - "For each death, a hole in the worl... - 
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