T.E. Griggs
  • About
  • Blog
  • B&W Gallery
  • Color Gallery
  • Sepia Gallery
  • Slide Show
  • Contact

Their service lives for evermore

5/25/2014

5 Comments

 
Picture
Krystle Huelsmann, an Iraq War veteran and member of American Legion Post 283, places a flag at a Civil War soldier's gravesite in College Hill Cemetery, Lebanon, Ill. 

Tears welled up in my eyes during church service this morning, and I had to fight with myself to keep from outright weeping. The day before Memorial Day, the pastor was praying for our men and women in uniform across the globe and for the families of those who have given all, those we honor each Memorial Day.

Memorial Day, the fourth Monday of each May, is devoted to remembering all those who have made the supreme sacrifice, who paid the ultimate price, who died in service to their country and our freedoms. The pastor included those men and women who currently are in uniform, because he obviously hopes and prays they all return home safely, that none of them join the many thousands of fallen heroes we reverently salute each year at this time.

A lot of people do mix up those special days that we set aside to salute Americans who serve their nation or have served. We salute today's troops on Armed Forces Day, military veterans on Veterans Day and those who made the supreme sacrifice or have passed on on Memorial Day. I wish more people would understand the specific purpose behind each day, but I know they mean no disrespect when they don't.

Some folks don't get it at all when Memorial Day weekend rolls around each year. I mean, they hardly even think about the reason behind the holiday. To them, it's that welcomed three-day weekend, marking the beginning of the summer-vacation season. It means new-auto sales, marked-down mattresses, time to get together with friends and neighbors and grill hot dogs and drink some brewskies.

I saw one of those mattress-sale ads on television this morning. This past week, I saw TV commercials for more than one auto dealership, blabbing about their Memorial Day deals. In a complete switch, the Mungenast Auto Family – that's a family-owned lineup of automobile dealerships in St. Louis – ran a commercial that pitched no car sales. It simply featured some photos of Americans in uniform, and it announced that it's dealerships would be closed on Memorial Day so that employees could be with their families and honor those who gave their lives for their country. I think I know where I'm going to buy my next set of wheels.

I respect Memorial Day. To me, it's the most important holiday of the year. On Memorial Day, I look back on the times I had with my fellow Marines who didn't make it home from Vietnam and from Lebanon. And I salute them and all the Americans throughout our nation's history who died marching in harm's way.

The history of Memorial Day goes back to the years following the Civil War. It was called Decoration Day then and was established by the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of veterans of the Civil War. The observance was to honor the Civil War dead and was officially announced by the group's national commander, Gen. John Logan, on May 5, 1868. Declared Logan: "The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land."

New York was the first state to adopt the holiday, in 1873, and over the next few years, all northern states came to officially recognize Decoration Day. Southern states would have no part of it until after World War I, when the holiday recognized those killed in action in all wars. Decoration Day eventually became Memorial Day over the years, but it wasn't officially named Memorial Day until enacted by law in 1967.

When I was growing up in my little hometown of Lebanon, Ill., Memorial Day was a big deal. A lot of World War II veterans were members of American Legion Post 283. Just before Memorial Day, the women of the American Legion Auxiliary sold the traditional red poppies, and the men placed American flags on the gravesites of veterans in College Hill Cemetery in our town and the Catholic Cemetery just north of town. It was a time to honor not only those who had died in combat, but also those who had served their country and had since passed on.

The tradition now continues, and I was at the cemetery yesterday with several other members of the local American Legion post, placing a flag at the gravesite of each veteran. It took us all day. We planted flags at so many headstones. I felt humbled in the presence of so many who gave so much to our nation.

At the end of the day, I was sunburned, tired and sore, but I think we all felt honored. We put our leftover flags in the back of one member's pickup truck and bid farewell to each other. Before leaving, I looked back across College Hill Cemetery, at all those flags we placed and the flowers left by families and dear ones. It struck me how the cemetery evoked such poignancy and sorrow, yet such decency and beauty.

                                           Their bodies are buried in peace,                                            but their name liveth for evermore.

                                                                 – Ecclesiaticus, 44:14
5 Comments
Jean McCasland
5/25/2014 10:46:46 am

Tom, I love reading the history of events you write on your blog. Thanks for all the interesting information and your patriotism!

Reply
T.E. Griggs link
5/26/2014 12:54:47 am

Thanks for reading, Jean!

Reply
Paul Whitfield
5/25/2014 10:50:26 pm

According to Wiki, American has lost troops in 75 different skirmishes and wars since the American Revolution. (This includes wars against the Indians, though I'm not sure the stats include the Indians, though they should.) The total loss was 1.3 million. A few questions: How many politicians do you think died in these 75 wars? And how many of these 75 wars were unnecessary and stupid? How many wars since World War II were conducted without a formal declaration of war by Congress, making the wars unconstitutional? And now we have presidents who sit around using push-button drones to kill people. This is a day to remember the war dead and the dead Constitution which we shredded a long time ago.

Reply
T.E. Griggs link
5/26/2014 01:01:20 am

Thanks for your input, Paul.

Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler, a long time ago, said: "War is just a racket. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket."

The general further expounded: "I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."

Yes, Maj. Gen. Butler could understand it and say it better than can any of us dumb grunts. "War is a racket," he reiterated. "It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."

We dumb grunts can understand the "losses in lives" part very well. Most of us jarheads joined to Corps to protect those homes that Smedley talked of and to defend that Constitution you speak of, and most of us have lost our share of Marine Corps brothers and sisters trying to carry out our missions.

We don't think in terms of skirmishes or police actions or conflicts. They're all wars, because when your fellow Marines are getting killed it's a damn war. It's that "War is hell" kind of thing that William Tecumseh Sherman talked about. When we signed up, we were gung-ho to defend American democracy, and we weren't thinking about asshole politicians sending us off to undeclared wars. We were thinking about the defense of our homes and the Bill of Rights, as old Smedley put it. We grunts and reconners and ground-pounders weren't thinking about unconstitutional actions being dreamed up in Washington to be enforced by us gyrenes and those other folks over in the Navy, Army and Air Force. My fellow Leathernecks thought of themselves as patriots and warriors and defenders of freedom.

So many of them died. So many of my personal friends died in Vietnam and Lebanon. In recent times, the flag-draped coffins have come home from Iraq and Afghanistan. We old soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines see them, and our hearts ache. A lot of us disagreed with the Washington bureaucrats who led us into those wars, but I know the fine young Americans who have died in those wars believed there was a purpose to their service.

We know all too well that more than a million Americans have died in America's wars. More than 405,000 died in World War II alone. I can relate most to the Vietnam War, in which the U.S. Marine Corps suffered more killed and wounded than in any other war. War sould be abolished.

I'm not proud of some of America's armed forays into other places, but I'm fiercely proud of my service and that of my brother and sister Marines and of those patriots of the other military branches. And we're all proud of our fallen comrades and wish they hadn't had to fight and die in their wars. Today we honor them.

Reply
Paul Whitfield
5/26/2014 01:44:59 pm

You have some tremendous points here, Tom. Powerful stuff. I was in Paris, Texas last week and stopped to see the "Eiffel Tower" with the cowboy hat on top, just for laughs. Right next to it, I unexpectedly find the Red River Valley Veterans Memorial. Stones flat in the ground with the name and war etched. Funny how the big things we come across when we are not looking. It's stunning when a guy walks through such a site.Silence says it all.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    T.E. Griggs is a writer, editor and photographer and a retired U.S. Marine.

    Archives

    May 2018
    December 2017
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.