In Memoriam .....

With the sound of numerous boats and jet skis bouncing off the water and echoing in unison against my nearby window pane, I couldn’t possibly escape the fact that today is the holiday set aside to kick off a summer filled with outdoor events while we take a moment to reflect upon and then honor those who have so bravely served our nation. It was only last night, as I endeavored to catch up on some recorded programming that an impressive fireworks display blazed across the sky nearby accompanied by the sound of thunder punctuating the usually calm night air before being met with cheers from the assembled crowd, that I couldn’t help thinking about the stark contrast in mindset and emotions similar sights and sounds must have brought about when played out on the battlefield.

When it comes to war and the question of fighting for our freedom, my viewpoints were primarily shaped by the Vietnam War, because it occurred during the time when I and my contemporaries were coming of age. When I look at today’s youth, I am struck by the fact that certain realities I grew up with like lotteries and reported daily death tolls on the evening news are foreign concepts, and I am grateful for that, even though their generation has been exposed to both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But bolstered by post 9/11 camaraderie and the perceived need to keep our country safe from terrorism, our involvements in both places have been entirely different than it was when I was young.

Who today would think what happened in a tiny little country in Southeast Asia would matter that much to one of the world’s most feared superpowers? However, with Eisenhower’s proposed ‘Domino Effect’ and fears of Khrushchev’s Communism taking over the free world, our military was called to action to fight in a war that would last 10,000 days and take the lives of 58,220 U.S. military soldiers, not to mention tens of thousands of others who came back with severed limbs and impossibly damaged psyches to a nation that – at that time – refused to honor their service, as Vietnam had been the first instance where draft-dodging was a common practice and the right to challenge authority was played out on college campuses across the nation.

War is ugly …. and Vietnam was particularly grotesque, because unlike its predecessors, it was guerilla warfare and not fought conventionally. Since we had failed to win the hearts and minds of the very people we were there fighting for, many of them campaigned along with the enemy in an attempt to rid us from their country. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were not Democracies like the U.S. but were primarily farming villages that peacefully worked their rice paddies and lived life according to their traditions. Fears of world domination and what happened in global politics mattered little to these primarily agricultural countries, but it came to matter a great deal once powerful chemical concoctions like napalm and Agent Orange blanketed their nation, thereby killing off all vegetation for the next ten years and with it their ability to survive off the land. Pipe bombs, booby-traps and ambushes became the standard and not the exception, therefore our soldiers were faced with fighting not only the enemy across battle lines, but the enemy from within. How many eighteen-year-olds – the age at which a young man became eligible for the draft – with no prior military experience do you know who would be capable of handling such adversity?

Therefore, as I sit here today in quiet reflection I honor all those who have served our nation, particularly those who helped shape my generation, because even when they were forced into the draft, they still fought against incredible odds for perhaps the greatest concept of all …. FREEDOM. I have been fortunate to visit the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. twice and as I have ran my fingers across the over fifty-eight thousand names etched into the granite surface, I am brought to tears by the realization that each represents a person …. somebody’s son or daughter, a husband or son, somebody’s mother or sister. Each had family who loved them and felt their loss so profoundly it shook them to the core of their being.

So today with flags flying high we typically dust off the backyard barbeque and ready the preparations to host family and friends at the end of a cherished three-day weekend, but we do so with reverence to all those who have given their all in the name of keeping ‘freedom’ a living, breathing truth within the boundaries of the place we call home …. America the brave.