Dear Saints at St. Paul’s,
This weekend marks Memorial Day Weekend, which, for most Americans, means a three-day weekend, the official beginning of summer, and barbeques or beach trips. Of course, it means a great deal more that outdoor fun and weekend summer sales.
Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 2019, marks a national day of mourning and remembrance, when we honor the soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen who gave their lives in service to our country, as well as their families who grieve their loss.
Growing up, I don’t recall ever visiting a Veteran’s Cemetery on Memorial Day, but I’ve done it often enough as an adult, both in formal ceremonies and alone. This day began to take on new meaning for me from the time I became a Midshipman, later a naval officer, and now a veteran. I’ll never forget visiting the Wall Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., with my classmate Eric Chase, where we found his father’s name caved in the stone on Panel 2E, Line 42:
Captain Chase died on July 22, 1965, when his Air Force jet was shot down over Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam, one of 58, 220 Americans killed in action in the Vietnam War. His son, Eric, was just over a year old. How does one say thank you for that kind of sacrifice, for someone killed in action or the family they leave behind? Eric became a Marine pilot 21 years later, but did not have to lay down his life as his father did. Seven of eight of our Naval Academy classmates who have given their lives in the service of our country were pilots: ENS Gregory McMichael (23 years old), CAPT Anthony Stancil (26 years old), LT Jay Williamson (27 years old), LT Dennis Redmond (26 years old), LT Robert Stevenson, III, 28 years old), MAJ Timothy Curry, 35 years old), and LTCOL David Greene (39 years old). The eighth, William Donovan, Jr., was serving at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, when he was killed in action by a plane taken over by terrorists. https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/Category:1986
We have been continuously at war ever since, for longer than any other time in American history, yet most of us are only vaguely aware of this grim reality for so many Americans who serve in harm’s way and for their families, especially the families of those 6,828 (and counting) sons and daughters, fathers and mothers killed in action in three military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. You can find their names at the Defense Casualty Analysis System website: https://dcas.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/main.xhtml
Why remember these sacrifices, to say nothing of the 88,000 enemy combatants and 220,000 civilians killed in conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq (according to a May 25, 2015 online article in Quartz by Cassie Werber)? Because these deaths – and these lives – mean something to those of us who live. And the way we live gives meaning to their sacrifice for us. Not to remember, or to live blithely unaware of this sacrifice, is a worse casualty that death – a kind of living death. This Memorial Day, let us remember – and live well.
Peace!
