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 71 years on this planet, young Americans who raised their right hands have gone in Harm's Way to defend freedom have paid the price.
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served and few lost. My mother told me that my paternal grandmother said she lost an uncle or a great uncle-or a couple of them-at Gettysburg (Union troops), my mother mentioned a cousin by marriage who was MIA in the Bulge, that's all I know of.
The real meaning of Memorial Day has been summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author ofThe Little War of Private Post, his recollections of his service in the 71st New York in the Cuban Campaign of 1898. The Spanish-American War is seen as a minor affair compared to the Civil War and the blood lettings 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 mother told me that my paternal grandmother said she lost an uncle or a great uncle-or a couple of them-at Gettysburg (Union troops), my mother mentioned a cousin by marriage who was MIA in the Bulge, that's all I know of.
The real meaning of Memorial Day has been summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author ofThe Little War of Private Post, his recollections of his service in the 71st New York in the Cuban Campaign of 1898. The Spanish-American War is seen as a minor affair compared to the Civil War and the blood lettings 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?"
