Memorial Day

It would take someone much more eloquent than me to properly express the thanks that we, as a nation, owe to everyone who serves and has served. So, because I don't think I can say it all, I'll just say…thanks.

Thanks to all of you who went through the tough training, and all you who devoted yourselves to training them so they could stay alive to come home. Grateful remembrance for those who didn't survive, but died on the messy site of some battle, or in the rubble of some distant city with a name we always mispronounce. Thanks to those those who managed logistics, kept communications going, flew support….

Thank you Tom, Bob, Buddy, Gary and Steve; thank you Paul, Curtis, David and Ric. Thank you all the other guys I went to college with who were just back from Vietnam. And thanks to that group of men I worked with at USAA, twenty years afterwards. I remember your stories, and the glimpses we got of what you had been through. Thank you.

Thank you Chuck. Thanks for telling me so matter-of-factly, all those decades later, about how things were, about the soldiers you saw die, sometimes in a group, and what you did to keep your guys as safe as you could. Thanks for serving so well, and I hope you weren't offended by my dark thoughts at your funeral, about someone in charge deciding it was okay for you to be exposed to the Agent Orange that eventually killed you.

Thanks to my late father and my father-in-law, who served in WWII. Thank you Wendell, Richard and Milton. Thanks for your devotion to accomplishing your mission, doing your job excellently, making the difference. Maybe someday I'll relate some of the stories you tell.

Thank you, Eva! During the first Gulf War, I worried about you and wore a yellow ribbon tied on my name badge. (If you recall, I handed you tiny scissors and you cut it off after you came home.) Thank you for the critical work you did…and also for the mental picture (at once amusing and very frightening) of you working under a table when there was incoming fire.

I've never really quite understood the difference between Veteran's Day and Memorial Day (and that's a different post), but I've decided it might be this: Memorial Day should include those who also stood and waited. Their sacrifices weren't as likely to involve blood, but were still pretty costly. They didn't see their dads, their husbands, wives, sons or daughters for long periods. They lived with the constant fear of getting official notification that the worst had happened. They moved, a lot. They were patient and understanding, through their frustration and longing. And they also deserve thanks today. So…thank you, Nancy, Richard, Greg & Tim; thank you, Cindy, Barbara, Linda, Steve and Milt. Thank you, Mark; thanks, Jean. Thank you Ann, Yolanda and the boys.

Thanks to everyone whose name I've forgotten to mention, and everyone I haven't personally known and yet would still like to thank personally. Your contribution is beyond measure, and we truly are grateful.

Happy Memorial Day, everybody.