thedrifter
05-04-05, 12:15 PM
Sent to me by Mark aka The Fontman
Every day is Memorial Day
The Kern Valley Sun
May 4, 2005
I am a proud military mother and every day is Memorial Day to me.
The military dead, men struck down at the threshold of life, in stark rows, their numbers beyond comprehension at Arlington National Cemetery or Flanders Field.
So many generations who paid their dues. So many memorials to man's inability to live in peace with his fellow man. So many who died in chaos and madness only to be buried with geometric precision as if they were on their final parade field. White lines on green hills.
Towns that have never known an air raid or an artillery shelling have marched their sons off to meet the Great Death. It is common to all Americans. The pathos for lives lost for reasons just and unjust. The call to sacrifice. Some heroic in a gallant assault. Some before they ever had a chance, grandsons could do no less.
Ten major conflicts in the 229-year history of the republic.
The images. The stern farmers, merchants and blacksmiths who hacked a livelihood out of the wilderness deciding to forge their own political destiny in 1776. The frozen glare of a 15-year-old boy who could save the Confederacy. The inaugural "with malice toward none and charity for all."
World War I song, "Over There." The parades and liberty bonds and the Yanks are coming home.
Then there were the trenches and the bloom was off the rose. Gas warfare, planes, tanks, barbed wires and the cry "over the top,",to plunge into "no man's land." The war to end all wars, and a peace treaty that guaranteed round two.
People didn't sing for World War II. War had lost its glory and its songs. It was the sinking of the Arizona and a dirty job that had to be done. Iwo Jima and the Marines. G.I Joes and the invasion of Normandy. Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the unthinkable had arrived.
Korea brought the concept of limited war. The soldier didn't know the difference. Americans shot in ditches with their hands tied behind their backs. Limited war, jet fighters, fears of thermonuclear disaster, the ice and cold of the Korean winters.
Vietnam one war too many the war that Americans would like to forget. A national embarrassment. Fifty-seven thousand metal caskets piled up awaiting a quiet trip home. (My generation's war.) Pleiku, Hue, and Tet. No songs no parades. If a war is unpopular, what of those who died in it? What of those who believed the leaders and saw their duty in service to their country? Is the soldier who died in Vietnam any less worthy than the soldier in the Battle of the Bulge?
Desert Storm a war left on finished. Enduring Freedom a war that I pray gets the job done this time.
Proud Mother of Chief Petty Officer Yvette USN (Desert Storm), Cpl. Charles USMC (Enduring Freedom), and wife to Charles Proud Vietnam Veteran USN. Yes, to me, every day is Memorial Day.
Sharon Sylchak
Bodfish
Ellie
Every day is Memorial Day
The Kern Valley Sun
May 4, 2005
I am a proud military mother and every day is Memorial Day to me.
The military dead, men struck down at the threshold of life, in stark rows, their numbers beyond comprehension at Arlington National Cemetery or Flanders Field.
So many generations who paid their dues. So many memorials to man's inability to live in peace with his fellow man. So many who died in chaos and madness only to be buried with geometric precision as if they were on their final parade field. White lines on green hills.
Towns that have never known an air raid or an artillery shelling have marched their sons off to meet the Great Death. It is common to all Americans. The pathos for lives lost for reasons just and unjust. The call to sacrifice. Some heroic in a gallant assault. Some before they ever had a chance, grandsons could do no less.
Ten major conflicts in the 229-year history of the republic.
The images. The stern farmers, merchants and blacksmiths who hacked a livelihood out of the wilderness deciding to forge their own political destiny in 1776. The frozen glare of a 15-year-old boy who could save the Confederacy. The inaugural "with malice toward none and charity for all."
World War I song, "Over There." The parades and liberty bonds and the Yanks are coming home.
Then there were the trenches and the bloom was off the rose. Gas warfare, planes, tanks, barbed wires and the cry "over the top,",to plunge into "no man's land." The war to end all wars, and a peace treaty that guaranteed round two.
People didn't sing for World War II. War had lost its glory and its songs. It was the sinking of the Arizona and a dirty job that had to be done. Iwo Jima and the Marines. G.I Joes and the invasion of Normandy. Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the unthinkable had arrived.
Korea brought the concept of limited war. The soldier didn't know the difference. Americans shot in ditches with their hands tied behind their backs. Limited war, jet fighters, fears of thermonuclear disaster, the ice and cold of the Korean winters.
Vietnam one war too many the war that Americans would like to forget. A national embarrassment. Fifty-seven thousand metal caskets piled up awaiting a quiet trip home. (My generation's war.) Pleiku, Hue, and Tet. No songs no parades. If a war is unpopular, what of those who died in it? What of those who believed the leaders and saw their duty in service to their country? Is the soldier who died in Vietnam any less worthy than the soldier in the Battle of the Bulge?
Desert Storm a war left on finished. Enduring Freedom a war that I pray gets the job done this time.
Proud Mother of Chief Petty Officer Yvette USN (Desert Storm), Cpl. Charles USMC (Enduring Freedom), and wife to Charles Proud Vietnam Veteran USN. Yes, to me, every day is Memorial Day.
Sharon Sylchak
Bodfish
Ellie