This is Memorial Day weekend. It’s time to head to the beach, follow the kids to a weekend tournament, or just kick back and take it easy. But it also may be a good time to remember the reason for the holiday. This came home to me as Terri and I went to Washington, D.C. on a bus trip a few years ago. (Yes, I know bus trips are for the “old folks.” But they drop you off as close as possible, feed you good, and you don’t have to fight the traffic. Besides, I reckon I now qualify as an “old folk.”)
Part of the trip was viewing the war memorials. The Korean War Memorial, honoring the 36,000 soldiers killed during the conflict, is really neat with the 19 soldiers on patrol. The Vietnam Memorial with its wall with all the 58,000 soldiers who gave their lives in that very unpopular war. Then there is the World War II Memorial.
What made it special was that as we were visiting the site, they were honoring World War II veterans. The Honor Flight group brings in those veterans, now frail and elderly, to see the memorial. Tourists, current soldiers, and others lined the sidewalk as the veterans, most now in wheelchairs, entered. Former Senator Bob Dole, a World War II veteran and instrumental in establishing the memorial, was there to greet them. It was special to be a part of those lining the sidewalk applauding and saying thanks to those heroes.
But there is no memorial to the over 6500 soldiers killed in America’s longest war. And it is still going on today. But there is a place in Arlington National Cemetery, which we visited, that has become sort of a memorial to those soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. In his book, “Section 60 – Arlington National Cemetery,” Robert Poole documents many of the 900 soldiers buried there from that war.
While walking through that part of the cemetery, Terri and I saw the gravestones of many of those who died, most in their early twenties. We saw a letter leaning against a grave from a young son, written in crayon, to his daddy, whom he’ll never see again. We noticed a young lady sitting by herself on a blanket by a grave, apparently having lunch with the memories of her soldier. There were notes from proud parents, writing about their son, gone way too soon.
But there is no memorial yet for those killed in a war that most of us, while still going on, have thought little about. Concerning this, Poole writes, “For most of the country, the longest war in the history of the United States has taken place largely out of sight, the casualties piling up in faraway Iraq and Afghanistan while normal life continued on the home front, with no war taxes, no draft notices, no gas rationing, and of the shared sacrifice of the nation’s earlier conflicts.”
This Memorial Day weekend, troops in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment — the Army’s official ceremonial unit known as the “Old Guard”— will place small American flags in front of all of Arlington’s U.S. tombstones. Each flag is planted precisely one foot in front of the over 400,000 grave markers and perfectly centered. Those soldiers will not be forgotten.
Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor those soldiers who gave their all for our country. Let’s not forget those who died in defense of our freedom. But let’s not also forget the child, the widow, or the parents of those soldiers who remain. They, too, have sacrificed.