Memorial Day is their day, isn't it? It is supposed to be the day a

grateful nation pauses to quietly thank the more than one million men

and women who have died in military service to their country since

the Revolutionary War.

Or is it the day the beach resorts kick into high

gear for the summer season, the day the strand is covered by

fish-belly white people basting themselves in coconut oil, the day

the off-season rates end and the weekend you can't get in a seaside

seafood restaurant with anything less than a one hour wait.

Or is is one of the biggest shopping center sales

days of the year, a day when hunting for a parking space is the prime

sport for the holiday stay-at-homers?

Or is it the weekend when more people will kill

themselves on the highways than any other weekend and Highway Patrol

troopers work overtime picking up the pieces?

I think the men and women who died for us would

understand what we do with their day. I hope they would, because if

they wouldn't, if they would have insisted that it be a somber,

respectful day of remembrance, then we have blown it and dishonored

their sacrifice.

I knew some of those who died, and the guys I knew

would have understood.

They liked a sunny beach and a cold beer and a hot

babe in a black bikini, too. They would have enjoyed packing the

kids, the inflatable rafts, the coolers, and the suntan lotion in the

car and heading for the lake. They would have enjoyed staying at home

and cutting the grass and getting together with some friends and

cooking some steaks on the grill, too.

LZ Memories BBS - "Always Green

Smoke!"

But they didn't get the chance. They blew up in

the Marine Barracks in Beirut and died in the oily waters of the

Persian Gulf. They caught theirs at the airstrip in Grenada in the

little war everyone laughed at. They bought the farm in the I Drang

Valley and on Heartbreak Ridge, Phu Bai and at Hue. They froze at the

Chosin Reservoir and were shot at the Pusan Perimeter. They drowned

in the surf at Omaha Beach or fell in the fetid jungles of

Guadalcanal. They were at the Soame and at San Juan Hill and at

Gettysburg and at Cerro Gordo and at Valley Forge.

They couldn't be here with us this weekend, but I

think they would understand that we don't spend the day in tears and

heart-wrenching memorials. They wouldn't want that. Grief is not why

they died. They died so we could go fishing. They died so another

father could hold his laughing little girl over the waves. They died

so another father could toss a baseball to his son in their backyard

while the charcoal is getting white. They died so another buddy could

drink a beer on his day off. They died so a family could get in the

station wagon and go shopping and maybe get some ice cream on the way

home.

They won't mind that we have chosen their day to

have our first big outdoor party of the year. But they wouldn't mind,

either, if we took just a second and thought about them.

Some will think of them formally, of course.

Wreaths will be laid in small, sparsely attended ceremonies in

military cemeteries and at monuments at state capitols and in small

town's squares. Flags will fly over the graves, patriotic words will

be spoken and a few people there will probably feel a little anger

that no more people showed up. They'll think no one else remembers.

But we do remember. We remember Jimmy and Matthew

and Marak and the guys who died. We remember the deal we made: If we

buy it, we said, drink a beer for me.

I'll do it for you, guys. I'll drink that beer for

you today, and I'll sit on that beach for you, and I'll check out the

girls for you and, just briefly, I'll think of you. I won't let your

memory spoil the trip but you'll be on that sunny beach with me

today.

I will not mourn your deaths this Memorial Day, my

friends. Rather, I'll celebrate the life you gave me.

This Bud's for you, brother!

... For he today, that sheds his blood with me,

shall be my brother. # Origin: LZ Memories BBS - "Always Green

Smoke!" (19:100/105)

For "Boogie Man", Jimmy, Matthew, and

Mark.

Boonie Rat

53rd ASA,SOCOM, 8th RRU,

PhuBai/Hue '65-'66