Memorial Day Is A Sacred Day

This is Memorial Day! It is a day for a grateful nation to honor those who have perished during our nation’s wars and skirmishes. It is not a day to argue about the politics of warfare or to glorify it. This is a sacred day, a time to remember the individual men and women who died on the battlefield, on the seas and in the air, in brutal prisoner of war camps and from the wounds of war, years after the peace was won.

Some of them are known only to God, unable to be identified. Others went missing in action, later presumed dead. The majority returned home in a flag draped coffin. Then there are those who survived the war but passed away years later in a Veteran’s Hospital, a nursing home or their own bed, victims of their wounds from combat. All forever leaving an empty seat at the family dinner table

Those we remember today were sons, daughters, spouses, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles and cousins. Most were cut down in the prime of their lives, their ultimate sacrifice being the major accomplishment of a promising life.

When you visit a national cemetery, you are stunned by the sheer number of white markers denoting the final resting place for so many who died so young. On the markers are a name, rank, service organization and home state. It emphasizes that buried there is a real person whose life was cut short.

Several years ago, my wife Nancy and I walked through the row upon row of perfectly placed markers in the meticulously manicured American National Cemetery and Gardens at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. It honors 9,388 American military who died in the D-Day invasion attacking the beaches below, and in the weeks afterward to liberate Europe during World War II.

Each of those buried there gave their lives, not for “Old Glory” waving in the wind like the movies. Rather they died for each other, their families, friends, neighbors and for countrymen they never knew.

They died in the arms of a buddy, a chaplain, nurse or alone on the battlefield; their last thoughts known only to them and God.

The war movies on television today will largely depict the generals and admirals from our nation’s battles since the American Revolution. But it was the sacrifices made by the soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guard seamen and merchant marines that won the battles that gave those high-ranking heroes their medals and reputations.

The majority of people we remember today were not professional warfighters. They were farmers, high school and college students, businesspeople, teachers, stockboys at the grocery store, truck drivers, and the kid down the street - the average American.

We are familiar with some of the wars and engagements in which they died, such as the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, War with Native Americans, WWI and WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.

But there are others with little historic recognition such as the Quasi-War, the First Barbary War, the Chesapeake-Leopold Affair, the Opium Wars, the Santo Domingo Affair and the Raid on Yakla. Americans died fighting in those conflicts too.

They were not all recruiting poster perfect. Most had rather be anywhere other than where they were, living in a real-life horror movie. They experienced fear, pain, hunger and exhaustion. What they saw and did are what nightmares are made from.

Today we don’t celebrate Memorial Day, we commemorate it. We honor the 1,354,664-plus Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of their country.

The war debate is for another day.