Memorial Day Weekend is on us again. I recall an article in the NY Times back in the 1990s entitled "As Wars Grow Distant, A Holiday Grows Gray."
What a difference a few years make. We have board members-StanTheMan 1986 that I know of-who are currently serving, some of us had our wars-Vietnam, in my
case, several of us served on AD or in the Reserves till retirement, many others served only in peacetime but as December 7, 1941, June 25, 1950 or September
11, 2001 remind us, peacetime militaries can quickly become wartime ones. I lost 2 buddies
on AD due to accidents, no medals no glory but they ended up just as dead.
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served, few were lost. My mother mentioned a cousin by marriage who was MIA in the Bulge, she said my long gone paternal grandmother sais she lost relatives at Gettysburg. That's all that I know of.
The real meaning of Memorial Day for me is best summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author of "The Little War of Private Post", his account of his experiences in the 71st New York in the Cuban Campaign of 1898-"The Splendid Little War". Only 4000 KIA or died of disease. But as Post says "Whether a man falls with 20,000 others in some grand battle or all by himself on a lonely outpost, he is a 100% casualty to himself.
What more is there to give?"
on AD due to accidents, no medals no glory but they ended up just as dead.
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served, few were lost. My mother mentioned a cousin by marriage who was MIA in the Bulge, she said my long gone paternal grandmother sais she lost relatives at Gettysburg. That's all that I know of.
The real meaning of Memorial Day for me is best summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author of "The Little War of Private Post", his account of his experiences in the 71st New York in the Cuban Campaign of 1898-"The Splendid Little War". Only 4000 KIA or died of disease. But as Post says "Whether a man falls with 20,000 others in some grand battle or all by himself on a lonely outpost, he is a 100% casualty to himself.
What more is there to give?"
