Editorial by Phil Luciano
To the precious few surviving doughboys who beat the Kaiser long ago …
To dedicated troops who fought and won the war to end all wars, then re-enlisted for the next one …
To 160,000 Allied troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy, 60 years ago next Sunday …
To young battlefield soldiers rushed into leadership ranks because all of their leaders were killed …
To anguished moms who had to change their blue stars to gold …
To Rosie the Riveter …
To 4-Fs who ran metal drives and air-raid drills and kept the home front humming …
To scientists and doctors who developed penicillin and other medical breakthroughs that help blunt the hell of war …
To military chaplains who foster hope in hopeless situations …
To the inhabitants of the Tomb of the Unknowns …
To veterans of peacetime who stood vigilant and ready …
To soldiers trained to fight and shipped to foreign lands, yet couldn't locate Korea or Vietnam on a map …
To POWs in cages …
To MIAs who came home years later in pieces in a box …
To others who vanished completely …
To troops who returned to America not completely whole …
To troubled veterans still living as prisoners of their own dishevelled minds …
To old-timers lingering in the loneliness of VA hospitals …
To vets who came home to ticker-tape parades …
To others who returned to spit and derision …
To women who paved the way
to join men in the fields of battle …
To service personnel who never knew what hit them at Pearl Harbor, in Beirut, on the USS Cole and elsewhere …
To Marines who watched horrible images of their slain comrades dragged through the streets of Somalia …
To loudmouths in bars who brag about their battles, because they deserve to …
To quiet men who don't say a peep about the horror, because they just can't …
To dwindling veterans groups who ceaselessly provide honor guards at the funerals of fellow vets …
To today's soldiers who struggle to find and fight an enemy that wears no particular uniform …
To teens brave enough to keep enlisting, even as the body count keeps rising …
To anxious, overworked spouses who keep families going back home …
To GIs with combat-related illnesses that the government ignores …
To teachers who tell our children about liberty's sacrifices …
To schoolkids who send letters and care packages to faraway troops they'll never meet …
To the hundreds of thousands of individuals, organizations and companies whose contributions built the National World War II Memorial, dedicated in Washington, D.C., two days ago …
To Web sites like virtualwall.org that let us remember soldiers not merely as war casualties but as individual human beings …
To aging soldiers whose reunions get smaller and smaller each year …
Thank you. Not just today, but every day.
Wow, that is an awesome and wonderful Memorial Day tribute - - thanks for sharing this, WT. It's very touching, as Luciano expresses his (and our) thoughts well. Lest we forget all those brave people of past conflicts, in both our great nations.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope you had a pleasant holiday!
What a nice picture :)
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