Memorial Day: Part 2

I attended the Memorial Day Service this morning with my son Joe.

He noticed that many of the veterans were very old. Some of them had a hard time standing up to accept our grateful applause. Carrying the flags and firing their rifles in the 21 gun salute have become difficult chores.

There was one Viet Nam veteran there, still able to wear his uniform from 35-40 years ago. It was stunning to realize how long ago that war was; and that war is still with us, having shifted from Southeast Asia to the Middle East.

Two veterans of the Iraq War spoke today. They are clearly from the modern era. They served willingly but not, perhaps, with the blind faith of those aging WWII vets. They discussed their frustrations with the War from too few troops to get the job done to a media whose agenda leads to slanted reporting. They were truly citizen soldiers, citizens who would speak their minds even as they were soldiers doing their duty. One hopes that bodes well for the future. Perhaps such citizen soldiers will become leaders who will understand that war must be a last resort, something to be avoided, if at all possible, but who also understand that there are some evils that must be confronted, even at the cost of American lives.

Finally, two posts from PowerLine that speak to the day far better than I can:

Memorial Day from Veteran's Perspectives

The sad reality of war