In Memoriam.......

Good Afternoon and welcome to my blog. Actually it's not my blog as much as it is yours, since I don't really write this for myself. Well, maybe I do some. Sometimes it's just good to get some things out of my head and heart. At any rate, make yourselves comfortable and have a drink.(you'll have to supply your own this time)
I've had on my mind for a couple of days the reason(s) for Memorial day. First of all, I'm glad that we have a day set aside for this specific purpose. It's brought to my mind the reason that Congress set this day aside, to honor those that have given their lives in service of their country. Given their lives not only in death but in other ways that are mostly permanent and very painful. In the process of trying to think these things through and make some sense of it I've come to some conclusions. Maybe they're good conclusions maybe they're not so good but they are the best I have come up with so far. I've thought back over the last thirty four years trying to make sense of my memories. As I recall those years I remember three basic categories of those people with which I served. I write this at the risk of oversimplifying for there is no simply way to view this. I've seen over those years guys and gals that live with memories they can't live with. Maybe that doesn't make much sense but there it is. Waking up because of nightmares of other times and other places. Waking in those times huddling under their bedcovers, shaking, in a panic and wet with sweat from a cold body. Depression too debilitating to be able to function well at times. Those guys and gals have to be remembered in a special way. They deserve all of the support and more that can be given. Then there are those that didn't have the chance to come home. Guys and gals that went to somewhere that till then was only a name in a history book or an encyclopedia. A place that most of us had never heard of and knew almost nothing about. Places like France, Italy, Germany, Okinawa, Tarawa, Iwo Jimo, Korea and yes, even Viet Nam. Now we can add to this list a far off place called Iraq. The list goes on and on seemingly without end. We could all put names on that list because we all have lost someone at those places. People that we remember personally and people we've only heard about from other loved ones. These are the real heros of the wars that we remember on Memorial day. The third group I remember are the ones that went to those far off places and came home to pick up lives the best they could. As I today walked through a cemetary I took notice of each grave that displayed an American flag. It occured to me that for every grave so marked there were people that had lived many years without a husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, brother and sister to laugh and cry with. People that had faced life without the support that could have and should have been provided by that person in the grave. How many lives, I wondered, were changed because of the death of that loved one. Too many to count! At church today those in attendance were recognized for their service to the branch of service they were in. Those in attendance aren't the real heros. T'he real heros are those that didn't come home and those that did and still work hard to live with what they saw and experienced.
Enough. I think I'll start tomorrow calling those buddies that are left to me, but first I think I'll go now and have a good cry. ........and so it went and so it goes........