Sadly, Memorial Day doesn’t seem to have the same umph it has had in the past.  The reason is probably because such a protracted time of relative peace and the reduction in number of families that have lost loved ones in battle has changed since the 50s, 60s, and 70s.  And that is both sad and good…

  Sad in that those men and women have been forgotten to a degree.  Good in that the freedom they bought has lasted as long as it has. 

I have been blessed to enjoy the freedom others protected with their lives.  I have lived in relative safety and don’t have personal knowledge of what it is like to have lived through rationing, war bonds, or flags with stars in a window.  My generation has been blessed indeed.

When I was young, back in the 60s, there was a friend of my family named Curtis Davis.  He served in WWII… as a machine gunner… in Germany.  He was took part in D-Day (Note: I was told the average life span of a machine gunner in WWII was two to three minutes.  I don’t know it that is true, but it makes sense.).  Curtis told me himself he had been wounded twice, and sent back into battle twice.  The only other thing he ever said about WWII was that he was on a ship headed to the Pacific when the atomic bomb was dropped and had never been so glad to hear anything in his life.  I wish I had known enough about life to have thanked him…

The men who served in WWII are few in number today.  But there are still many who served in Vietnam, Gulf Wars 1 and 2, Afghanistan, and Iraq.  There are still many veterans who are disabled and families who have lost loved ones in battle.  It is good and right for us to honor and thank them for their sacrifice on Memorial Day.

If you know a family who lost a loved one in battle, today might be a good day to thank them for their sacrifice.