Memorial Day 2009

There are 152 blogs listed at the Cards for Heroes Memorial Day Blog Hop website. Every one of those blogs has posted cards and/or stories, usually both, about why they are supporting this wonderful effort this Memorial Day. I have just finished visiting and commenting at every blog in this project. They are filled with wonderful cards, but more important, they are full of stories of heroes, stories that reminded me once again about the great devotion our military men and women show to our country and to US!

Do you have someone to remember this Memorial Day? Not just someone who served, but someone who gave his or her life while in the military? I do.

In the summer of 1972 I remember when a phone call came into the store where I worked and a neighbor of mine, younger than me, suddenly left. When I got home that evening, I learned that his older brother had been killed in VietNam. My older cousins had served over there, a boy I dated senior year in high school had a brother over there, plenty of people I knew had someone over there, but, until then, miraculously they all came home. I visit that young man's name whenever we visit the memorial wall in Washington to this day.

In the early 80's I got a phone call- a high school friend of mine had died while serving in the Navy. It was my first military funeral and I have never forgotten it. Both the funeral Mass and the graveside service were conducted by the late John Cardinal O'Connor, who at that time was Admiral O'Connor, Chief of Navy chaplains. All of the Navy personnel participating in the funeral- those carrying the coffin, folding the flag, even the bugler- were women; an amazing sight and experience.

Our job today is to remember them, and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, from the eight men on Lexington Green in April 1775, through Gettysburg, Belleau Wood and Monte Cassino, Pusan, Khe Sanh and Kuwait, to the men and women who will not come home from Iraq and Afghanistan. They are all, each and every individual one of them, American Heroes.

If Memorial Day matters to you, please read the rest of my Memorial Day weekend posts and watch the videos. When you are done, please go to Cards for Heroes and see how you can support our current American Heroes. Thank you.