Memorial Day

As my own mortality becomes more evident with each passing year, this day has become more emotional for me.  My immediate family members have all come home from the wars: WWII, Vietnam, Gulf Wars and the Wars on Terror.  But so many families have not been so lucky.  I’ll never forget receiving the call my friend’s son had been KIA.  I sobbed as if he was my own.  In my reflections today, I’ve been revisiting old photos and finding the Vietnam-related newspaper articles my grandmother saved, holding on to each and every bit of information she could find.  Although I can’t imagine what it was like, as a parent, I do recall one particular day in Optometry School, gathered around the television; reports of two pilots taken prisoners of war and when the camera panned to the downed helicopter, I immediately recognized the cavalry unit insignia as being that of my two brother-in-laws.  I became physically sick.  Regardless of how you feel about war, the troops that died, did so in the name of America.  There are so many families forever changed by those sacrifices.  Certainly, one thing our government has done appropriately is to devote a day to remembering those families.  

The National Moment of Remembrance is at exactly 3 p.m. on Memorial Day.  Please spare one minute of your time and think of those families, today.