Memorial Day

“This is the day we pay homage to all those who didn’t come home. This is not Veterans Day, it’s not a celebration, it is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of freedom.” -Tamra Bolton

I have a tradition every Memorial Day. I watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

10 minutes of respect feels like the least I can do.

preach (dudeist priest) said:

“This is the day we pay homage to all those who didn’t come home. This is not Veterans Day, it’s not a celebration, it is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of freedom.” -Tamra Bolton

Good point--and much more eloquent than mine, so let's make this the first post.

This is a sad day for me.  I have lost friends to war. Every Memorial Day I can not help wondering what if.  What if they came home. What if their demons could have been tamed.  Today is a day to remember them and honor them.  I miss them all so much and yes there is a hint of guilt that I am still here but I also know that all of them would say to me. "Smarten up Smudger".   

I went to the Medal of Honor museum in Chattanooga, TN last year. It was quite humbling reading the stories/actions of the people I could see in their pictures. If you ever get a chance to go there please do it. 

I share a name with a MoH recipient:

Daniel Atkins 

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well-thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free."

- Ronald Reagan 1961

'When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free.'

-Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker

Today I pulled the old  R-90 out for its first scoot, everything went well around the back roads east of Saratoga Lake.  (great roads when teaching a teenager to ride).  Always seem to end up at the National Cemetery, beautiful place!  Sometimes Trish goes there to chat with her father.

I'm spending the day outside with my 2 year old son because others sacrificed all so that we could. I quietly thank them.

In memory of my comrades-in-arms:

Capt Brent Morel, USMC

1st Lt Travis L Manion, USMC

GySgt Ryan Jeschke, USMC

SSgt Jason Whitehouse, USMC

SSgt Christopher Zimmerman, USMC

Sgt Jonathan Simpson, USMC

Sgt Nicholas Walsh, USMC

Sgt Jon Balkowitsch, USMC 

Sgt Seth Algrim, USMC 

and the thousands of others not personally known to me who died in the service of their country. 

Thank you to all who serve and have served, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice. 

In reply to 914Driver :

Thanks for posting these.

For those that we lost.

For me it's in rememberance if my grandpa joe. WWII and Korea.

But it's also thinking of my best friends who served and lost something along the way. 

I hope you understand what I'm saying, sorrly for the typos but man I can hardly see the screen right now

Decoration Day. I won't post my comrades, but too many suicides, too many needless deaths, and too many trying for a rescue. These last two years have been so hard because I have infinite time to inventory and remember names and faces and places. Mine all have USCG at the end of their titles but it doesn't matter. Remember, and let's just inch this world a little better and safer so we don't have to cry so much. 

Travis Manion is from the town I grew up in. 

In reply to dxman92 :

It's a small world. His mother and father were the guests of honor at our Ball that year, a few months after he was killed and shortly after we returned home. His sister is doing an amazing job running the foundation named in his honor, and doing a lot of good for gold-star families.
 

One of these days, I'll make it to Arlington to visit him...