If your Memorial Day has been like mine, there has been little time to stop and remember those who gave their lives for our nation.
Join me, if you would, in taking a moment to reflect upon all of the men and woman who died in service of the United States.
The casualty lists for every war this Republic has been engaged in, right back to the Revolution, is linked, if you’re interested.
I confined myself to a small subset of that with a visit to the military cemetery at Fort Lawton. I took some pictures, none of which I have processed. But mostly I walked around and took in the ages and names of those resting there. In some ways it was like a small town churchyard, with families buried near one another, old men and women, infants and children all represented.
One marker stood out for me — a young man, born when I was 9, and under that marker before I was 30, a casualty of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. There were some mentions of Vietnam, Korea, WWII, even one veteran of the Civil War and Spanish American War. But none quite so disheartening as that.
On my way there, I was listening to radio broadcast of a Vietnam-era nurse describing her experiences. It was pretty awful to listen to but worse to endure.