Remembering Memorial Day

Memorial Day is more than a day off from school and work. It is more than a picnic with family. It is more than a parade.

Both Tommy and Jordan march in the Mansfield Memorial Day parade. Jordan as a Brownie, and the boy as a T-Baller. As proud as I'm to watch them march by, I get a strong sense of patriotic pride when the few veterans march by. You could say, I get goose bumps.

Recently I read that, "Approximately 850 American World War-II veterans die every day."
It is very likely the WW-II veteran will become extinct in my lifetime.

Something everyone should think about.
That elderly man, in line at the donut shop that fumbles with his change purse as he pays for his daily newspaper and coffee. He might have stormed the beaches of Normandy, and he might have witnessed his buddy's body ripped apart by enemy machine gun fire. Maybe he nearly froze during the Battle of the Bulge. Maybe his ship was torpedoed, or hit by enemy fighter planes. He might have been hit by enemy fire and thought of family when he thought he was going to die so far away from home. He might have been forced to kill enemy soldiers, or be killed. He might be a HERO.

How about that old women driving slow down the road, and you are behind her. Did she serve as a Army nurse during WW-II. Did she witness the horrors that war can do to a human body. Did she hold the hand of a young boy as he cried for his mom and took his last breath.

We are surrounded by heroes from WW-II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and we don't know it.

I believe everyone should be required to watch movies on Memorial Day. Saving Private Ryan, The Pacific, Band Of Brothers. And understand, these men and women could be the person standing next to you.

To all current members and veterans of the Army, Marine, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, Fireman, Police, and Army Nurse Lieutenant Gladys Finch and Army Corporal Albert Baker.

We give thanks to you this Memorial Day.