Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, we can begin honoring those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service of the country by our own actions.

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Museums and Memorials

Last Monday, we had the opportunity to visit the National Museum of the United States Airforce. I had been there before a little over 14 years ago when I had just retired from the U.S. Navy and was attending company indoc at NetJets in Columbus, so a day trip to Dayton over the weekend was a great idea then. This time, we were on the road attending to family business and decided to take a day off to visit the museum. It is a first-rate facility, with four hangers full of aircraft ranging from everything between a 1909 Wright Flyer to an F-22 Raptor, many with corresponding full-scale dioramas, and a significant number of side displays. Near the B-25B Mitchell, we meant a gentleman, who must have been in his mid-80s and instructed some sixty years ago in later versions of the B-25. It was a pleasure and honor chatting with him.

The first time I visited, both the World War II and Southeast Asia War galleries were particularly moving for me, as my tours flying variants of the P-3 Orion with VQ-1 and VPU-2 took me to many locales discussed in the exhibits therein. Those same emotions were present this visit, but they also came up as we moved through the hangers, coming into the north wing of the Cold War Gallery, where there are aircraft that I have either flown variations of, or operated with, during my six years as a pilot with Avenge, during which I flew side by side with active-duty personal on operational reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the Presidential Gallery, the newest of the hangers, there was a T-39A, which brought back pleasant memories of my first tour in the Navy flying the CT-39G Saberliner with VR-24. However, I must admit, having recently written my article on the Manhattan Project, the most poignant display for me this visit was the B-29, Bockscar, which was the sister aircraft to the Enola Gay.

An IMAX theater is also on the property, which has a rotating schedule. We chose to watch D-Day: Normandy 1944 3D.

On the way home, after visiting my mom and brother in West Virginia, we stopped at the small, but very nicely done Civil War Memorial dedicated to the Confederate Soldiers of Monroe County, which is on the north side of Union, WV.

Decoration Day

Memorial Day grew organically from the aftermath of the Civil War, when people started paying their respects by decorating the graves of fallen soldiers, of both sides of the conflict, with wreaths and flowers. It became originally known as Decoration Day in 1868 after a proclamation by General John A. Logan. A careful reading of the second paragraph of Logan’s proclamation shows that he intended to only to honor the fallen Union soldiers, whose

…lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms.

Not a surprise as Logan was the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1868 to 1871.

The last sentence of the second paragraph was perhaps more moving, and relevant,

Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

Thus, despite the overtones toward the Union only in his proclamation, three weeks after, on May 30, nearly 5000 gathered at Arlington to decorate the graves of 20,000 soldiers, again from both sides of the conflict.

The day of remembrance evolved over the decades to include all military members who have died in service to the country.

Nearly 100 years after the first Decoration Day, Memorial Day became a federal holiday, establishing the current observation as the last Monday in May, which has unfortunately had the effect of diluting the meaning of the day to the start of summer rather than the solemn occasion originally described by Logan.

To Honor

When we honor someone, we hold them in high esteem, treating them with great respect. We can certainly express this easily to those still among the living. We show deferential body language; we speak to them in an overtly polite manner, using nouns such as sir or ma’am, or their title, for example senator; we pay attention when they speak; we are fully present when with them; we heed their advice and follow their lead. If someone is among the living, and we truly hold them in high esteem, we continually show them that we honor them by our actions every time we are with them or encounter them.

But how do we honor the dead, particularly those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to the country, defending not only it but the ideas and ideals the Founders embedded in its formation? A simple annual ceremony, such as Memorial Day is a start. However, that truthfully should only serve to accent what ought to be an ongoing process. We can honor those who died protecting the freedoms and liberties, which far too many take so lightly, by holding those freedoms and liberties in high esteem, by cherishing them, by protecting them ourselves. We can study, and understand, why they fought, what they fought for, and what sacrifices they made in addition to their very lives. We can pay attention to what led them along their path and to how their journey applies to our own. We can conduct ourselves in a such a manner that were the solider, sailor, airman, or marine still alive and witnessing our behavior, they would feel, know, and be humbled, by the honor in which we hold them and their actions.

We can conduct ourselves in such a manner that their sacrifice will not have been in vain.

2021

This Memorial Day we find ourselves in a disturbing situation. Far too many have little appreciation of the ideas and ideals rooted in the foundation of this country. Far too many have little, if any, appreciation of, nor knowledge of, the country’s real history, of dates, events, and key players. Far too many have never read any first-hand accounts of that history. There are those who would utterly destroy this country though cancel culture, revisionistic history, and outright treason. Perhaps the largest threat is that far too many have a distorted admiration of, and are overtly flirting with, socialism, a corrupt and evil ideology which over 400,000 U.S. troops alone gave their lives defeating during WWII. The actions of far too many today not only dishonor those who those who fought to protect the freedoms we all have, they are a deliberate attempt to shred those freedoms, both of which are utterly disgraceful.

This Memorial Day, certainly enjoy the start of summer with that grill out, the beer, the outing on the lake with the family. But more importantly, make time in the start of the day to pause, reflect, and consider what the day truly means. Make time to pay a visit to the local veterans’ cemetery or memorial and lay a wreath, flowers, or perhaps tidy up around some gave sites. Perhaps take the kids to a military museum. Wherever you go this Memorial Day, while there, ponder, with grave reverence, grave reverence, what those who came before us achieved, what sacrifices they made so that we can have the lives that we have today. Internalize that, understand it. And then, if you are not doing so already, start honoring them every day by your own conduct.

Do not allow their sacrifice to have been in vain.

Namaste folks and thanks for reading,

May 28, 2021