It feels strangely like the calm before a storm and I’m not talking about the weather. A feeling of melancholy lingers in the air as I listen to 60’s music while writing this.
While it has been decades since the Vietnam War ended, Memorial Day is reminding me of it and other conflicts, past and present. Names like Bosnia, Gettysburg, Mogadishu, the Ardennes, Bougainville, Restrepo, Fallujah, Normandy, Okinawa, and many more flit through my distracted mind, but Vietnam keeps coming to the fore. I suppose that is because of my half-brother Steve, who served two tours there. While he came back unlike those we honor today, he didn’t come back undamaged.
So many have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and I’m deeply grateful for the lives they led and gave. In an era of fewer and fewer serving in the military, a price has been paid by the general public. That price is detachment from the sacrifices made as the burdens have fallen on a shrinking number of families. My prayers and thanks go out to those families. Let the deaths of those soldiers not just be remembered – let them be not in vain.
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