Thursday, May 26, 2005

Memorials, Big and Small

This is the Thursday BEFORE Memorial Day. So many folks are starting to get ready for a weekend escape. Some, if able are starting theirs’ today.

School year is (almost) over and the thoughts of everyone seem focused on SUMMER VACATION.

Wait, that’s not what Memorial Day, is for, it’s become that, but the original meaning is lost to so many. Some might remember a time when this was not so. And for many, and for too many this with be a first – Memorial Day has FULL meaning, the price of freedom, because it ain’t free folks. Not by a long shot. It's paid with the blood of those that died.

Does not matter the where or the when, this is one of OUR AMERICAN Holidays, unique to the United States, we remember all our War dead, from the American Revolution through to those on the Army helicopter that was just shot down in Iraq.

Many families’ trees have too many limbs cut off, too many that died young (and not so young), men, and quite a few women too.

According to what I learned as a Brownie Girl Scout, that it started after the Civil War, when the graves of those that died were decorated with flowers and flags. I marched in a community parade, with all the other Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, Boy Scouts, and the Junior High School Band, and a large group of veterans, most from World War II. We went to the community’s memorial, flag ceremony, speakers, a couple songs and a wreath placing.

Then it was time to go home to change clothes and enjoy a picnic meal. As often as it was hot and sunny, it could also be cold and rainy. Ah, the wonderful weather of the Great Lakes region!

We were a lucky family, of those that went in World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and all the time in between – we had no combat related deaths. Service related, yes, and there were injuries, and limbs lost. But for the most part, all came home.

Then I enlisted, and Memorial Day was more than a Federal Holiday. First one in uniform, I was still in technical training, but our instructors held a small remembrance ceremony for their friends and coworkers that were killed in Southeast Asia.

My second, I was at a Memorial Day Service with a friend, one of her co-workers died (in front of us) from an accidental electrocution. I was 30 feet away, I cannot forget it, and the helplessness I felt not being able to do anything but pray for that person.

I never went a year without someone I knew dying in the line of duty, or from military service connected illness/injuries. And this was the Cold War, and the so-called “Peace-time” military.

Training accidents, and incidents, aircraft mishaps and sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some were similar to anyone else’s luck. A traffic accident with a fatality is the same, whether in Cleveland Ohio, or Tachikawa Japan.

I have scrapbook pages started, that remember the many friends I have lost, newspaper clippings and funeral service programs. Some with my last photograph of them, before “it” happened.

I am the widow, surviving spouse of a military member, an AF Cop, son of a Reno Cop. At his final service, there were cops (civilian and some military from his old Air National Guard Unit), and from Beale AFB, an honor guard, and a few friends (military) from happier days.

No Memorial Day since the day I entered Active Duty was so hard to get through, (he was recognized as among whom that year’s service was being held for).

I haven’t yet scrapped that, its’ still, 12 years later, too raw a nerve.

So unlike many, when I see the televised observances, I cry, I “know” the emotion that the survivors are feeling. I go and help decorate the grave sites with a small “Stars and Stripes,” placed one boot length from the headstone, and follow the placement with a salute.

There are many that survived their war, and are now suffering from their injuries, often aggravated by aging. My dog and I visit these veterans and it hurts when one of their number is gone. I have yet to remember them in pages. A family member died earlier this year, a close friend, at the beginning of this month, this year’s Memorial Day will be a time to remember them.

If you have a family member that served in the Armed Forces, take time NOW to talk with them, to learn from them. If your family has lost a member, talk to those that knew that person. And then, make a page, a layout or even a book about their service.

If you have no one, share your time at a Memorial Day observance; think about those that paid the price for our freedoms.

3 Comments:

At June 01, 2005 8:19 PM, Blogger Nancy said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

 
At June 01, 2005 8:19 PM, Blogger Nancy said...

Sandy, that was beautifully said. I am grateful for all you have done and continue to do for our country. (Bill, too.) Happy Memorial Day, Sis.

 
At June 06, 2005 12:01 PM, Blogger Jessie said...

Than you so much for your years of service and your continued dedication to your country. And thank you again for the reminder of why Americans get a day off to have BBQs and miss work. It is so much more.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home