blackhawknj
Buckeye
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2010
- Messages
- 1,945
Memorial Day is upon us once again, and as has been the case for most of my 65 years on this earth, Young Americans who raised their right hand and promised "to protect and defend..." are going in Harm's Way and making The Ultimate Sacrifice.
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served and few lost. My long gone mother told me my long gone paternal grandmother told her she lost an uncle-or a great-uncle, or a couple of them-at Gettysburg (Union troops), she mentioned a cousin by marriage who was MIA in The Bulge. My paternal grandfather was a Marine, 1896-1902, supposedly in the Boxer Rebellion, my old man was Quartermaster Corps WWII (but he and I never talked). My late uncle served in the Navy after WWII, he had a cousin who trained as a ball turret gunner but never saw action, my SIL's late father served in the Navy in WWII but stayed Stateside.
The real meaning of Memorial Day has been summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author of The Little War of Private Post , his memoirs of his service in the 71st New York in the Cuban Campaign of 1898. A rather minor war compared to the Civil War and the bloodlettings of the 20th Century, but as Post reminds us, even "small" wars come with a high price.
"Whether a man falls with 20,000 others in some grand battle or all by himself on a lonely outpost, he is a 100% casualty to himself. What more is there to give?"
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served and few lost. My long gone mother told me my long gone paternal grandmother told her she lost an uncle-or a great-uncle, or a couple of them-at Gettysburg (Union troops), she mentioned a cousin by marriage who was MIA in The Bulge. My paternal grandfather was a Marine, 1896-1902, supposedly in the Boxer Rebellion, my old man was Quartermaster Corps WWII (but he and I never talked). My late uncle served in the Navy after WWII, he had a cousin who trained as a ball turret gunner but never saw action, my SIL's late father served in the Navy in WWII but stayed Stateside.
The real meaning of Memorial Day has been summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author of The Little War of Private Post , his memoirs of his service in the 71st New York in the Cuban Campaign of 1898. A rather minor war compared to the Civil War and the bloodlettings of the 20th Century, but as Post reminds us, even "small" wars come with a high price.
"Whether a man falls with 20,000 others in some grand battle or all by himself on a lonely outpost, he is a 100% casualty to himself. What more is there to give?"
