For Memorial Day
25 years ago, I was wrapping up my service in the U.S. Army, during an era that history records as "peacetime," save for a bloodless Cold War with the Soviets.
While I was in Basic Training, we got word of 241 U.S. servicemen (plus many French and others) killed in the bombing of a Marines barracks in Beirut. Then news of the quick-and-easy invasion of Grenada, with "only" 19 Americans killed.
During my three years in Germany that followed, three members of my brigade in Heilbronn died suddenly when a static spark ignited a rocket section during a routine maneuver. Another unsuspecting soldier in Frankfort lost his life for his ID card, which terrorists used in an attack that killed two more Americans.
Into a Berlin disco, someone threw a grenade -- an American soldier was among the dead. He was the first official casualty of the "war against terrorism," as that was President Reagan's justification for awarding the man a posthumous Purple Heart.
I only personally knew one fellow soldier who returned home in a casket. During a weekend off, he lost control of his motorcycle on a patch of ice.
No matter what the era, the saying remains true: All gave some, some gave all.
While I was in Basic Training, we got word of 241 U.S. servicemen (plus many French and others) killed in the bombing of a Marines barracks in Beirut. Then news of the quick-and-easy invasion of Grenada, with "only" 19 Americans killed.
During my three years in Germany that followed, three members of my brigade in Heilbronn died suddenly when a static spark ignited a rocket section during a routine maneuver. Another unsuspecting soldier in Frankfort lost his life for his ID card, which terrorists used in an attack that killed two more Americans.
Into a Berlin disco, someone threw a grenade -- an American soldier was among the dead. He was the first official casualty of the "war against terrorism," as that was President Reagan's justification for awarding the man a posthumous Purple Heart.
I only personally knew one fellow soldier who returned home in a casket. During a weekend off, he lost control of his motorcycle on a patch of ice.
No matter what the era, the saying remains true: All gave some, some gave all.