Memorial Day
It's not summer on the calendar yet, but it is in spirit--the first weekend of summer, with Memorial Day close at hand.
This morning I got up early and drove out to the West Tennessee Veterans' Cemetery, in a suburb of Memphis, for a Memorial Day program, which included a talk by a U.S. Navy physician who served in Tikrit and Basra, a flyover by jets from the USAF base in Columbus, and the playing of "Taps" to conclude the program.
While a lot of the people in the audience were Boy and Girl Scouts, leaders and parents (the Scouts placed flags at each grave after the program was over), standing directly in front of me were two WWII veterans, one from the USAF (complete with a shirt printed with B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators and other famous planes of WWII).
My dad was an Army medic in WWII, in the European Theater, while Darrell's dad was a Navy radioman in the Pacific Theater. Dad didn't tell many war stories--except the funny ones--and Darrell's dad never talked about it at all, but Memorial Day always makes me stop and realize how much we owe to those men and women--and all the others--especially those who've given everything they had.
This morning I got up early and drove out to the West Tennessee Veterans' Cemetery, in a suburb of Memphis, for a Memorial Day program, which included a talk by a U.S. Navy physician who served in Tikrit and Basra, a flyover by jets from the USAF base in Columbus, and the playing of "Taps" to conclude the program.
While a lot of the people in the audience were Boy and Girl Scouts, leaders and parents (the Scouts placed flags at each grave after the program was over), standing directly in front of me were two WWII veterans, one from the USAF (complete with a shirt printed with B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators and other famous planes of WWII).
My dad was an Army medic in WWII, in the European Theater, while Darrell's dad was a Navy radioman in the Pacific Theater. Dad didn't tell many war stories--except the funny ones--and Darrell's dad never talked about it at all, but Memorial Day always makes me stop and realize how much we owe to those men and women--and all the others--especially those who've given everything they had.