Memorial Day 2011

Each Memorial Day, I find myself in places where I am privileged to listen to the stories of men (and a few women) who served in this nation's military.  They don't often speak of their service, nor of the men (and a few women) who did not come home from their generations' war. But on this day, they sometimes do.  

I knew a WWI veteran...he was quite elderly when I knew him, and of course, he was one of the ones who lied to the recruiter about his age.  He started as a Cavalry assistant...caring for actual horses when they were still used in battle.  He spoke of horrors on battlefields that even Hollywood could scarcely imagine; carnage of men and machine and horses as far as the eye could see.  

I know several WWII veterans;  some who served in Europe and a few who served in the Pacific.  My father's uncle was a SeaBee who served on Kwajalein and Fiji and Iwo Jima.  He never spoke of what he saw, but we know from history of the brutality of the enemy in those campaigns.  Others from that war speak of the cameraderie between fellow soldiers that has lasted for 70 years...and they speak of the dead as if they were alive just yesterday.

I know Korean war veterans who bristle still at the scant attention paid to their war...a war still not technically over. They speak of the uncertainty they all felt of the support they received from home, and of the ever-present sense of impending doom. 

I know Vietnam veterans who felt disrespected or ignored or worse upon their return, who saw their friends die deaths unimaginable. They speak with pride in their service, but often tinged with bitterness and anger.  

 I know Cold War veterans, who, though there were few casualties, served silently and proudly during the tensest moments of political maneuvering between superpowers.  Many of them still cannot speak of their service at all.  

And I know men and women younger than me who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, sometimes more than once, who, if they have not died outright, left arms and legs and eyes behind.  They have sometimes not quite yet found the words to speak of their service. 

Its tempting, on this Memorial Day, to wonder what it has all been for.  The deaths of young men and women in our service honor our nation, but speak of the failure of governments to find peaceful solutions to the problems between nations and ideologies.   We must encourage our legislators to seek alternatives to sending young men and women to war.  We must seek peace, and use the bodies of our young as political and sometimes actual ammunition as an absolute last resort.  

But let us leave all those musings for another day. Today, let us simply, quietly, reverently and respectfully remember those who have given the last full measure of devotion.  And let us listen carefully to those who did serve, were lucky enough to come home, and have something to say.