MEMORIAL DAY, 2005

Americans have celebrated Memorial Day since 1868 to honor those who fought and died to preserve our freedom. We have set aside one day each year to pause and reflect on the debt of gratitude we owe to the brave patriots who stood in the breach when the defense of liberty demanded the ultimate sacrifice. President John F. Kennedy said that, “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”

In honoring the men and women who have sacrificed their lives to protect our freedom, we ensure that their heroic spirit will live on for years to come. It is proven that this spirit is alive and well in today’s armed forces. In Bosnia, along the DMZ in Korea, in the Sinai Desert, in the skies over Iraq, and the blue waters of the Pacific, our marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Coastguardsmen stand watch, day and night, guarding freedom’s frontier.

Today, as in the past, the military bear the burdens that make America’s blessings possible for all its citizens. These dedicated men and women of today’s armed forces actively preserve the noble legacy passed down to them. We should not only honor these men and women on one day, but each and every day of the year!

As sent by: Jerre Divelbiss

Email Jerre

Memorial Day 2001

Randy A. Marwede Director,
Ingham County Department of Veterans

Memorial Day is a unique national holiday. If not the most important national day of patriotic observance, it can certainly be argued as the most solemn day we set aside for recognition.

This is a day of mixed emotions. It is a day for reflection in honor of all the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who made the ultimate sacrifice throughout our history. The number is truly staggering. More than one million men and women, accounting for those full-time professional and Reserve Component warriors who have fallen in battle.

I don’t think it is possible to truly grasp what that loss means really.......but should be obvious to every American that this sacrifice deserves much more appreciation than we could possibly demonstrate on one day a year.

This is a day of personal sorrow for those who have lost loved ones in uniform. But it is also a day for the nation to mourn, to show our collective national pride, and to illustrate our appreciation for this almost unbearable sacrifice. We honor these brave warriors by not forgetting them. We honor them by not taking for granted what they did for us.

Tradition is a special part of this holiday, which dates back to the Civil War. As the battle raged, Confederate widows and grieving family members began placing wild flowers on the graves of their loved ones. They did this for the Federal soldiers buried in their states, as well, and a similar custom arose in the North around the same time.

In May of 1866, just one year after the conclusion of the war, a shop owner named Henry Welles in Waterloo, New York, closed his store for the day in honor of the dead - Federal and Confederate alike.

Two years later on May 5, General John Logan, then commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, asked fellow Civil War veterans to place flowers on the graves of fallen comrades on May 30. He thought this was an important gesture in keeping alive the memories of fallen soldiers and sailors. Although the date and location of the first such memorial observance is still in dispute, these acts of gratitude and appreciation became known as Decoration Day.

By 1882, Decoration Day became known as Memorial Day, and the holiday had broadened to honor service members from all of America’s wars. In addition to decorating graves with flowers and wreath, citizens also held parades and listened to speeches and the playing of taps.

The renowned jurist and Civil War veteran Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., believed that this holiday was the most sacred day of the year. Memorial Day, he declared, should have a meaning for all Americans. He asked people not to conclude the holiday with sad thoughts of the passing of our heroes, but rather with thoughts of their legacy, of the life that was made possible by their commitment and their pain.

As American citizens we try to comprehend our fallen heroes’ immense sacrifices. Those who have seen or experienced the horrors of war first-hand have no need to use their imaginations or rely on second-hand testimonies. They know too well the nasty, dirty business of war. But it is important for the rest of us to place ourselves in the shoes of those who have faced the terror of combat. Only with such empathy can we begin to appreciate the sacrifices that we honor.

We might recall wars fought on our own soil or those that raged in foreign lands. It is a testament to our strength that the majority of our brave service members fell on foreign soil, stopping aggression before it ever reached our shores. Those warriors who fell on strange terrain - as even our modern veterans have done - must have died an even more difficult death than those who were struck down near their own homes since they were so distant from loved ones.

Though the enemy may change and the venue of battle may vary between land, sea and sky, the grim experiences of war remain constant. Today we see mostly young adults, barely having come of age, facing their duty with little complaint. While those who have died tried their best to hide their fears from home and fellow warriors, they went into battle scared. But still they went, and in a flash of violence and horror - whether they had time to realize it or not - they made a grand sacrifice.

World War Two and our landings on Normandy during D-Day in 1944 quickly come to my mind. Clearly, this is an example of our veterans facing the impossible. For those of you who have seen the powerful film “Saving Private Ryan,” surely there is a permanent image burned into your memory - an image of men who faced the certainty of death as they bravely carried out their orders. And yet they overcame, they were victorious, and we have never forgotten them. Could we ask for greater heroes?

A few weeks before the Normandy landing, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, wrote home to his wife reflecting on the great losses he had witnessed during the war. He wrote, “It is a terribly sad business to total up the casualties each day...and to realize how many youngsters are gone forever. A man must develop a veneer of callousness that lets him consider such things dispassionately, but he can never escape a recognition of the fact that back home the news brings anguish and suffering to families all over the country. War demand real toughness of fiber, not only in the soldiers who must endure, but in the homes that must sacrifice their best.”

So how do we as a nation adequately preserve the memory of these valiant men and women and the gifts that they secured for America? Aside from honoring those veterans who are still with us today, we remain in touch with the past through symbols. “Memorial” can be defined as something, such as a monument or a periodic observance, designed to preserve the memory of a person or an event.

America has recently erected several key monuments to serve as bold reminders that we so desperately need. Joining the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in our nation’s capital is the Korean War Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1995. Two years later we received the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.

Not only have these become instant landmarks for people visiting Washington, D.C., but each has been replicated in a number of states and towns. In 1998, a scale model of the Vietnam Memorial was launched on a nationwide tour. Called the Healing Wall, this exhibit has served as a bridge of national recognition for those who sacrificed in that war to those still suffering with their losses in communities large and small. We will also soon have the long-awaited memorial that honors our World War Two veterans, both those living and those no longer with us. It will be in Washington, D.C.

Tom Brokaw memorialized our World War Two veterans in his book “The Greatest Generation,” and later with “The Greatest Generation Speaks.” As he pointed out, they were so busy getting on with their lives after winning the most destructive war in human history that they didn’t take the time to memorialize their great triumphs.

Thousands of miles away, in a place disturbed on certain Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, we are reminded of the sacrifices made at Pearl Harbor. The monument of the USS Arizona is a lasting memorial to those sailors, soldiers and airmen who faced impossible odds that fateful, black Sunday morning. Regrettably, we have no shortage of sacrifices from which to select when erecting our memorials.

Still, we accept our inherent duty the protection of all people. It seems difficult to believe that ten years have already passed since the Allied success of the Persian Gulf War. Since that time American forces have faced enemy fire in Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. We all know that we don’t have to be in a war to have casualties. Sometimes it may seem as though losing warriors in these ‘operations other than war’ is more difficult to take than it is in purely wartime operations. And our forces face dangers every day, whether on realistic training missions, patrolling hot border areas, or assisting with humanitarian aid across the globe.

Regardless, the Armed Forces of the United States stands guard in a world that continues to pose significant threats to our country and to our Allies.

This continued vigilance itself is an important way of honoring those who we remember today. We learn from history, from our mistakes, and from our victories because we don’t want to lose the precious ground bought with the blood of those who came before us.

The military of today is fully prepared to meet the challenges of this new century.

Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki got to the heart of this issue when he said: “Our soldiers are the finest Americans you will find anywhere - dedicated, disciplined, proud, tough, and compassionate. They are on point for the Nation around the globe, and in the face of significant challenge, they are training hard every day to be ready to fight and win our Nation’s wars.”

Today, the general population, and especially those young people thinking of joining our enlisted and officer ranks, are hearing a new Army theme. “An Army of One,” the slogan reads. It focuses on the strength and teamwork of the U.S. Army as a united force of many soldiers. Yet, it also reinforces the concept of each individual making a unique contribution to the Army’s success.

One of the Army’s most brilliant examples of a committed individual is Theodore Roosevelt. He was a citizen and a veteran who knew how to keep patriotic holidays sacred. Colonel Roosevelt, as he enjoyed being called even after leaving the presidency, was recently posthumously award the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the Spanish American War. He said to a collection of his soldiers after returning home from the war: “I think that the most vivid memories that we take away with us will be of those whom we left under Cuban sod and those who died in hospitals here in the United States - the men who died from wounds, and the men who, with the same devotion to country, died from disease. I cannot mention all the names now...they were men who died in the pride of their youthful strength.”

Theodore Roosevelt, like all warriors who speak with the experience of combat, realized the importance of remembering those who didn’t make it home. These one million men and women, whom we honor on Memorial Day, will indeed continue to live on in our nation’s memory.

It is within our power to keep them alive. In fact, it is our debt. Let us depart today not with sadness for those we honor, but with gratefulness. Because they died, we may live.

As sent by: Ken Loper

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The men mentioned above served this Great Nation
Please honor them with your e-mails

Senator Glenn to Senator Metzenbaum

Every once in a while one wonders why he used to stand in the rain,eating cold scrambled eggs off of the fender of a jeep and think he was cheating the government. Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living.

This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the Uniformed Services do what they do for a living. And an example of what those who have never served think of the Military. Senator Metzenbaum to Senator Glenn: "How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real "job"?"

Senator Glenn: "I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by antiaircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook; it was my Life on the line. It was not a nine to five job where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank. I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day to a Veterans Hospital and look at those men with their mangled bodies in the eye, and tell them they didn't hold a job. You go with me to the space program and go as I have gone to the widows and orphans of Ed White and Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their dad didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day coming up and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends than I'd like to remember and you watch those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell me that those people didn't have a job. I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men - SOME MEN - who held a job.

And they required a dedication to purpose and a love of country and a dedication to duty that was more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible.

I HAVE HELD A JOB, HOWARD! "What about you?"

E-Mail: kaloper@dnsonline.net
"There is more to life than increasing its speed." Gandhi

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