For many this is a day that kicks off the summer. Picnics are planned,
long weekend vacations, special sales. Pretty much the same way most
long weekends are celebrated. Lost somewhere in all that, is the true
meaning of this day.
It is a day set aside as a solemn remembrance for those brave men and
women who paid the ultimate sacrifice defending our country and our
freedoms. It is the second most important holiday our country
celebrates second only to Independence Day.
The irony is that the military members we honor today, died so people
could have a picnic, a long weekend vacation and enjoy those special
sales, watch the Indy 500 or just puts around the yard. And yes even
if they chose not to remember those who gave up life so we could live-
free.
I wonder, as folks go out this weekend how many have taken a pause to
sincerely thank God that there are those who laid down their lives so
that we can have the freedom to come and go as we please. I wonder
how many parents took even a minute to sit their children down and
explain why this day is so important to them in a way they could grasp
and not just an excuse for a day off from school.
There will be celebrations in many towns in honor of those from their
town who fought and died. But there is one group of men who as a group
need to be remembered too. Their sacrifice came not as part of a war,
but rather during an attempt to rescue US citizens who were held
captive at our Embassy in Tehran, Iran – a place I know all to well.
Eight died during operation Eagle Claw on April 25th 1980 in the
middle of the Iranian desert. 3 were US Marines, 5 were members of
the US Air Force’s 1st Special Operations Wing, from Hurburt Field in
Florida.
Our motto at the 1st SOW, “Any Time, Any Place.”
A lot of us who were in the wing used to jokingly call it the “1st
Pig. Because when it was time to get down and dirty, we always got
the call ” To go places you may not have heard about and do things
that, believe me, you never want to know about. All to protect our
freedom.
So this Memorial Day when you pray for those about those who gave the
ultimate sacrifice for our freedom please remember my comrades in
arms.
From the 1st Special Operation’s Wing, United States Air Force
Maj. Richard F. Bakke, 33
Maj. Harold L. Lewis, 35
TSgt. Joel C. Mayo, 34
Capt. Lyn D. McIntosh, 33
Capt. Charles T. McMillan, 28,
From the United States Marines
Sgt. John D. Harvey, 21
Cpl. George N. Holmes, 22
SSgt. Dewey L. Johnson, 31
There but for the Grace of God, go I.
Louis Zamperini and Memorial Day
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Media Services
Perhaps you’ve heard of him, perhaps not. Louis Zamperini has had fame, lost it and seen it restored more than once. That happens when you are 94 years old and must be re-introduced to succeeding generations.
Zamperini was a juvenile delinquent, then an Olympic distance runner who competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany (he met Adolf Hitler and his chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels), then a Navy enlistee.
Louis crashed in the Pacific after a rescue plane developed engine trouble. He floated for 47 days on a raft before being picked up by a Japanese warship. He and his surviving buddies were taken to a prison camp where they lived in subhuman conditions, suffering unimaginable physical and mental torture.
Louis’ incredible story of “survival, resilience, and redemption,” has been brilliantly told in Laura Hillenbrand’s latest book, “Unbroken.” I read all 398 pages in two sittings. For myself, the son of a World War II veteran, whose four uncles also served, it is another of those “greatest generation” books popularized by Tom Brokaw. Reading it reinforces one’s pride in being an American and deepens the appreciation one feels for those who gave their lives so that we could live ours.
On a recent visit to Washington, I asked Louis if he was able to call up vivid memories of his friends who died in the plane crash and the ones who subsequently died in the prison camp. He told me, “The memories never fade. It’s like indelible ink. When you go through an intense period like we did, it’s branded on your heart and mind.”
When he thinks about those who died and those with whom he served, does Memorial Day make his memories even more vivid? “You have buddies in college, buddies on the Olympic team, but there’s something about combat buddies that it’s hard to explain.” He can never forget and he doesn’t want to.
Louis says he recently read about “a kid who came back from Afghanistan about three months ago. They fixed his leg up and told him ‘Well, you can get out of the service now’ and he told them, ‘no, I want to go back to Afghanistan to be with my buddies.’ That’s the way it is in war. It’s altogether different from athletics and close friends. My buddies were a pilot, co-pilot and navigator.”
I asked Laura Hillenbrand about this much-chronicled generation. What does she think shaped it? “What struck me about these people,” she begins, “is they had all gone through the Depression … and while that was very difficult, it was like they were being forged in fire. I think the men and women who came out of the Depression were made of sterner stuff than people are today. And it made them capable of getting through what they had to get through in the war. It gave them a sense of purpose; it gave them fortitude; it gave them an ability to endure. I think that may be the biggest difference between that generation and now. We have had it easier. We have expectations we will be given certain things and things will come without sacrifice. That generation didn’t have that.”
What would Hillenbrand say this Memorial Day to those who have lost loved ones in war? “I think the sacrifices that are made by fighting men and women are among the greatest you can make in your life. This is an extraordinarily meaningful way to spend your life, whether you survive or not. Some of the most beautifully liberating things in our history have been done by fighting men and women. I hope there is some condolence for those who have lost someone that their loved one was lost in the service of something so grand as what the military stands for.”
“Unbroken” has been number one and is currently number two on The New York Times Best Seller List. It deserves to be in every American home and Louis’ story should be in every American heart.
(Direct all MAIL for Cal Thomas to: Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207. Readers may also e-mail Cal Thomas at tmseditors@tribune.com.
WOW! WOW! PRAISE GOD WHAT A CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let us hear from you this day!
For God’s Glory Alone!
In the Love of Christ, Dewey Sharon and Family