Good Morning!
Today is Memorial Day.
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Quote of the Day
“Memorial Day isn’t just about honoring veterans, its honoring those who lost their lives. Veterans had the fortune of coming home. For us, that’s a reminder of when we come home we still have a responsibility to serve. It’s a continuation of service that honors our country and those who fell defending it.”
Pete Hegseth
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On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a local event to recognize the service and sacrifice of U.S. Army Sgt. Sean Durkin. Sgt Durkin died April 9, 2010, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. after being wounded by an IED in Afghanistan two weeks earlier. He was 24.
A little over 5 years later, his comrades in the 82nd Airborne Division finally got the opportunity to say goodbye to their fallen brother and offer condolences to his family.
Members of the family, community, local VFW, Fire, Police, and EMS joined in welcoming the men to the area.
Members of the 82nd say goodbye, and greet Sgt. Durkin’s family.
Sgt Durkin’s mother Mary Ann and members of the 82nd address the crowd.
Members of Warriors’ Watch provided a motorcycle escort to the men from the 82nd and the family. They provide Welcome Home missions and many other services for our nation’s warriors and their families.
“Warriors’ Watch will provide motorcycle escorts for military units returning from war, for units deploying, and for individual warriors coming home or going off.”
That do that and so much more. The last line of the quote of the day above describes their continued service, and why they do it, very well.
The story of this local man really brought home the meaning of today for me. This country has lost many of our best and brightest in its defense. Some estimates put the total number of casualties, from all U.S. conflicts, at around 2.9 million men.
But it seems to hit closer to home when you know their names and they lived close by. Then these aren’t just numbers. They’re husbands, fathers, brothers, neighbors, and friends. It becomes much more personal when you know the faces of these men, as I’m sure many of you can understand from personal experience.
I can’t imagine the grief their surviving families must feel. Right now there are many families in America where the pain of loss is much more recent and fresh. If you have the chance today, thank them for their family’s sacrifice, and keep those families in your prayers.
And if someone in your family has made the ultimate sacrifice for this country, let me say this to you and the rest of your family….
Thank You.
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Wandering Views 
I commented on FB the other day that after 21 years of Navy service, we only knew sailors who had died–and both were chaplains. One went down in a helicopter with 15 Marines; the other had a massive heart attack while delivering humanitarian supplies to Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami.
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How moving, AJ.
Great post for Memorial Day which truly highlights the meaning of the day. Thank you for making this blog such a special place!
Too many ‘m’s in what I just wrote, but I will leave them in honor of M Day.
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Chas is at McDonald, on their wi Fi My ATT is out. It was suppsed tp be I[[ last night, but it’s still down.
Ignore typos, I can’t handle this keyboard.
It really has been quiet aroung here tody.
Off for lunch now.
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Thanks for the post, it’s important to remember lives are still be lost in service to our nation.
I’m off holiday duty today, which is somewhat rare — I often cover 1-2 of the Memorial Day events in our area but didn’t want to work the holiday this year (besides, they’re also resisting paying out any OT, now forcing us to take a “comp” day to cut down on what they pay us for doing holiday or other extra shifts — we’re not surprised, but again, with a lot fewer people on the books to pay nowadays … how broke can they/we be? It’s what happens when you’re owned by a hedge fund whose middle name is “cut”).
A couple other reporters will be covering today’s events instead. The biggest one — at the cemetery — has the Vietnam moving wall this year.
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It’s raining. I can’t hang out the flag, so here it is: 🇺🇸
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I missed this striking photo & column that apparently went viral from a year ago — an eagle sitting on a national cemetery gravestone, caught by an amateur photographer.
http://www.startribune.com/memorial-day-look-back-eagle-photo-touches-hearts/127347018/
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I agree that Memorial Day is not about veterans, but those who didn’t come back.
Most of you won’t like the genre, but this is what Memorial Day is about.
. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRaRxSN4V2M
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There are still conversations going on in yesterday’s thread.
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Is that why there are so few comments here?
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Oh, and the sun came out a little while after my earlier post. The flag is out, now.
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“The Five” on Fox News is talking about commencement speeches and advice given to seniors. I have heard lots of commencement speeches, including one by Sen. J. F. Kennedy and by Walter Cronkite. The only thing that influenced me was the Baccalaureate Sermon delivered to the graduating class of North Charleston High School. I don’t remember what he said, but the title of the sermon was “How’s Your Old Man?”
Lots of advice is given to strive for the next level. I never did that. I wanted to be the best at what I was doing. That works also.
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I was actually a little confused as to where to post comments. I thought maybe this thread was only about Memorial Day, especially after I saw more comments this morning on the weekend’s Our Daily Thread. So I commented over there. 🙂
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