It’s a day to remember the soldiers whose crimson blood changed the color of the tide at Omaha Beach, the airmen whose final moments were in a burning plane over Nazi-occupied France, the sailors who are still entombed by a saltwater grave in a harbor called Pearl, and the Marines who never made it home from islands named Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Peleliu, and Tarawa. It’s when we resolve to never forget the spelling of places like Khe Sahn, Chosin, Fallujah, and Kandahar. Today is not just the beginning of summer. It’s not Independence Day, Flag Day, Armed Forces Day, or even Veterans’ Day. Today is more sacred….because it’s not about the living.
We should never forget those whose last breath included a realization that they would never again go camping with their families, hunt deer in a river bottom, or remove their hat at a rodeo. Today, imagine what it was like to know that you are about to die in another country, thousands of miles from your home and family. This is Memorial Day…..and we should never forget.