by Greg Corrales
“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”
General Order No. 11, General John A. Logan, May 5, 1868
The divisions caused by the Civil War prevented Decoration Day, long since called Memorial Day, from being universally accepted until WWI. Today, the problem is an apathetic public. After the Civil War, most American families had a personal connection to a death in uniform. Now, only a handful does. The holiday’s commercialization in 1968, when its observation was changed to the last Monday in May, minimized its true meaning, also.
“Few Americans are touched personally by the ongoing conflicts overseas,” editorialized The Washington Times. “The vast majority have no direct contact with the war in any form, much less knowing someone who fell.”
Yet it is exactly in wartime that Memorial Day is most poignant. This is especially so because less than 1% of the population is bearing the burden. A survey taken among military families revealed that 94% felt disconnected from the larger society, feeling that their sacrifices are unappreciated.
Remembering is vital. “Memory is the key to the character not only of a person, but a country,” Kathy Roth-Douquet, a Marine wife and founder of Blue Star Families, wrote in USA Today. “Memory is necessary for both historic and moral understanding.”
That we are remembering a special class of citizen on Memorial Day goes without saying. Since time immemorial, Western societies have canonized warriors who sacrificed their lives. In his column in VFW, VFW National Commander Richard L. Eubank asked, “Exactly what makes up the character of those willing to sacrifice their lives in battle?”
Ancient Athenian statesman Pericles described them in making a plea to honor the dead who had faced the vast armies of Persia on the plains of Greece. “…In the face of death they resolved to rely upon themselves alone,” he said. “And when the moment came, they were minded to resist and suffer, rather than to fly and save their lives; they ran away from the word dishonor; but on the battle field their feet stood fast, and in an instant, at the height of their fortune, they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, but of their glory.”
These words apply equally to the Americans who have died in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in my war, Vietnam, and to those that preceded them dating back to the Revolutionary War. As our society drifts further away from the realities of war, it is necessary to remind the public of what the tiny minority does for the vast majority. That is what Memorial Day is really all about.
A van packed with illegal immigrants, all wearing military digital cammies, hoped to cross a border checkpoint March 14 east of San Diego. But two U.S. Border Patrol agents, both former Marines, were suspicious and posed a surprise question: “When is the Marine Corps’ birthday?” The driver didn’t answer. When asked for an “oorah,” none of the passengers responded. Agents arrested 13 men and two suspected smugglers.
On January 10, Bill Bower, 93, the last Doolittle Raid pilot, died at his home in Boulder, Colorado. He was one of the 79 airmen who flew on the 16 Army Air Force B-25s on that history-making raid on April 18, 1942. He took off from the USS Hornet for the 600-mile journey to Japan. After bombing Yokohama, Bower’s plane headed for China. Engine failure caused the crew to bail out of the Werewolf, but Chinese villagers rescued all of them. Bower went on to make the Air Force his career until retiring in 1966. Only five Doolittle Raiders (crewmen) remain alive.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan are using a brand-new weapon that experts are calling “a game-changer.” The XM25 is a rifle-sized, shoulder-fired grenade launcher that uses “smart” ammo: grenades embedded with microchips that allow U.S. forces to home in on the enemy. As The American Legion Magazine reports, the XM25’s smart grenades can search out and target an enemy “even when the enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover.” The XM25 fires 25 mm shells up to 2,300 feet. Troops can program the shells to burst at a specific distance and height. The XM25 has been described as “300 percent more effective than current weapons at the squad level.”
Police-Fire Post 456 would like every veteran in the SFPD and SFFD to become members of the post. If interested, please contact me at Mission Station at 558-5455 or at greg.corrales@sfgov.org. The post meets on the second Tuesday of every month at 1800 hours. Meetings are held at the War Memorial Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 214. Refreshments are served at the conclusion of Legion Business.
