"America must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure. I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the whole issue of the struggle depended on me." Martin A. Treptow, Private, US Army KIA July 1918
Last year Mike Durand and I talked about the hardest part of Memorial Day. What do you say? We could articulate, again, what most of you already know - that this is not about grilling burgers on a 3-day weekend. I wonder sometimes how many of you deal with today as well as you do. I have "only" lost a few friends over the last 12 years, though one was too many. Many of you reading this, military and military families, lost far more than I. I can only assume you to be made of far sterner stuff than I.
I hate Memorial Day, as much as I am thankful we have it. That's pretty silly, really. I can say with utter certainty that everyone I am remembering today went out doing what they loved to do - and would probably have mocked me (profanely) for growing maudlin as I talked about them. In at least one case my manhood would be called into question while my snuff was stolen.
Today we will do the same thing as last year. We will invite you to post the name of whomever you wish to remember in the comments. Host the image or post a link if you'd like. Pain shared is pain divided, Col. Grossman says, and joy shared is joy multiplied. I'm thinking there's a little bit of both here.
Have a good day today. Here's to our dead friends.
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"...we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors. As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will not surrender for it now or ever. We are Americans." Ronald W. Reagan.40TH President of the United States
ALCON: If you wish to post an image here in addition to mentioning their names below, e-mail them to us and we will put them in this post.
Remembering: Sgt. Joshua Robinson, 29, of Omaha, NE. Josh was killed in action Aug. 7, 20122 in Helmand province, Afghanistan conducting combat operations with 1/5 Marines.
Honoring: Sgt. Tanner Stone Higgins, 23, of Savannah, Ga., was killed in action on Friday, April 13, 2012, in Logar Province, Afghanistan.
Honoring SGT Roderic A "SOLO" Solomon, KIA 28 MAR 03 during the invasion of Iraq when his Brad rolled into a canal. He assisted getting everyone out and drowned; currently interred in the Ft. Bragg National Cemetery. "This picture is from 1992 with the 82ND ABN LRSD. We were conducting water ops at Mott Lake on Ft. Bragg. SOLO was a SPC at this time and the only E-4 and below who was a Gulf War veteran."
