Memorial Day

Some Memorial Day links -

President Reagan's address on June 6, 1984 posted at OP FOR.
Black Five has a letter to Mom and a link roundup.
Decoration Day and brief story of SFC Paul Smith, recent Medal of Honor winner, at Captain's Quarters.
(Medal of Honor history, statistics, and recipients.)
Michelle Malkin has lots of links and short stories. More links at Wizbang!. And reflections by La Shawn Barber.
A Soldiers Perspective on the Meaning of Memorial Day.
Memories of James "Tre" Ponder at Sgt. Hook.
Right in Florida remembers.
Professor Bainbridge tells about his grandfather.
The heroism of a conscientious objector at Don Surber.

Visit this open post at California Conservative for ongoing Memorial Day post links. And this one at Florida Masochist. And this one at Iowa Voice.

There are so many more stories, tributes and link collections out there I feel like I hardly made a dent. Which is exactly how I feel every year. I never really know what to say around Memorial or Veterans Day and I often avoid discussing the military completely on this site. My regular readers know that many who visit this site are liberal and rather than hear many of their inane statements and positions I simply avoid the subject all together. Why get myself so worked up over ill informed and egalitarian positions?

I grew up in the military. Both of my grandfathers served, my mother and father, and even my stepfather. I can trace my roots back to ancestors who served in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. I was born when the US was leaving Vietnam, grew up on military bases across the south during the end of the Cold War, experienced the first Gulf War from an overseas assignment, and I was graduating high school here in the states shortly after America had left Iraq.

When the time came for me to choose the military I had the option to go to college, an option not available to my parents or their parents. There was a time when acceptance or ability to attend college was a lottery ticket for the rich kids and the upper class. We were neither rich nor upper class. Rather than a way out, I thought, at the time, college was not just an opportunity, but my responsibility. I thought, isn't that exactly why so many soldiers fight and die, serve and support, enlist and re-enlist? Regular people who are thinking of something bigger, thinking of the future, thinking of their own kids and for the kids of countless others, including the children of the countries we often fight to free and defend.

I am convinced that my life was surely meant to follow the path it took. While in college I went through a series of lung collapses, any one of which would have removed me from the military anyway, and would surely have occured much earlier in my life had I expereinced the stresses of Basic Training. But knowing my path was set doesn't diminish the emotions I feel around this time of year.

After 9-11, I began to think more about my childhood and the people around me. I often think about the differences of viewpoint from "on base" and off the base. The older I get the more profound I realize those differences are. Those who experienced it know exactly what I'm talking about, and most who have never experienced the military life will never understand it, much less empathize with it.

Although many in my family were in various forward areas of operation throughout different conflicts (WWII, Vietnam, Gulf War), I am not aware of any family members who lost their life as a result of direct combat action, and I can't say I've heard many stories of combat and valor; I consider myself lucky to be ignorant of those things.

But I can say Thank You.

I can say Thank You to my parents, family and friends who have served and are serving today; and also to the millions of soldiers I have never met, the many who will come, the soldiers who serve, defend and secure our world from terror and tyranny. I can say your service has provided everything I will ever need, in ways you may have never thought. I have no fear of tomorrow, because I know you are there, I know you are well trained, some of you trained by members of my own family, and you will not leave until your task is accomplished.

I am full of pride and destiny because of your actions. Because I am American, because you defend me, I am a leader in this world and I can change it so that your children may have options and choices like I did. Because you laid down your life, your youth, your future; because you did this defending us, then I will defend you here at home.

And for those who, like me, never really know what to say, maybe because they didn't serve, or because they don't understand it, don't measure up to it, or don't deserve it - you can say something too.

Thank You.

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