I'm working today. I'm also stopping for a moment, and remembering.
Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, a day for cookouts and picnics, right? Sure. It's also, and most saliently, a day to remember the fallen. There are people we should thank for their service today -- but they're unable to reply.
Our pleasant holiday exists because men (and women) put themselves between their fellow citizens and the terrifying destruction of war, just as other men and women in other lands are doing right now. War is not normal; war should not be the default state of life on our planet. But wars exist, and wars chew up soldier's lives, always. Reluctant or resolute, they served and fell. Remember their sacrifice.
It's not only those that fell during a war, but those who prepared to hopefully prevent a war.
ReplyDeleteToday I'm remembering 1LT Al Torn, USAF, died on 17 October 1984 when his F-111 crashed during a night terrain following mission.
He was in my flight at AFROTC field training (B Flight, Dyess AFB, June 1980).
Still remember sitting at my desk in shock looking at the article in the Air Force Times listing his name, as he was the first of my classmates lost.
RIP.