Sunday, May 25, 2014

Monday's Musings on Sunday: Memorial Day, A Day for Memories

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. A day for memories, for prayers, for tributes to those who gave their lives so we could live.

Our flag flies at half-mast on Memorial Day. I grew up in a military family, and I married two military men...uh, not at the same time, however. Both fought in wars that this country involved itself in, one, WWII, not brought on by anything we did, the other, Korea, a war we probably should not have intruded upon. But both were out of the service by the time I married them.

My brother was twelve years older than I, and in his first year of college when he decided to enlist in the Air Force during WWII. I was just a little girl, but he was my hero and I was devastated when he left for the service. He signed up for four years, and came home only once during that time. That short leave was one of the happiest times of my life.

In April, 1945, he and his B-17 crew were awaiting rotation home when his best friend, also a pilot, received word from the Red Cross that he should come home immediately, as his wife had been severely injured in a car crash. My brother volunteered to take his friend's last flight, and when his crew heard about it, they all volunteered to fly with him. The mission was over Berlin. It was the last bombing raid before Germany's Hitler surrendered. That morning, fifty-two bombers went out. That afternoon, forty-seven came back. David's  plane, "Lil' Sis", was not one of the forty-seven.

Three days later, I was reading David's last letter to me when a car pulled up in front of our house. A major, a captain, and an Air Force Chaplain stepped out. I had grown up all over the world from one Army base to another, and I knew what that meant. My brother, my hero, was gone, and my life would never be the same.

Today, Richard will put up the flag, and tomorrow it will go to half-mast. For David, for my father, for my former husband, for all the friends we have lost over the years, some not military at all. It will fly at half-mast for my closest and dearest friend who died so very suddenly and unexpected just before Thanksgiving last year, and whose death once again changed my life. And that flag will fly at half-mast not just for us, but for all the men and women who have lost their lives fighting someone, something, that the United States has declared an "eminent danger" to the US...even when it possibly wasn't. It will fly in memory of, and as a tribute to, all those fallen heros.

Will your flag fly tomorrow? Will it be lowered to half-mast? If so, for whom will it fly?

Until next time, God Bless.
That's a wrap.

10 comments:

  1. Both my dad and step dad were in WW2. While my father saw little action, my step dad was in the thick of it in the South Pacific.

    My hubby was drafted for the Viet Nam War. He was spit on, had bottles thrown at him, suffered insults, and was chastised by friends and foes for not running off to Canada to avoid the draft. In that war, I lost 2 step brothers, 3 cousins, and an uncle who came back as another person from PTS.

    Remembering them and my faher-in-law (who was denied entry into the service during WW2 because he was Hawaiian and needed to repair the ships at Pearl Harbor) is something we do every day. We owe our freedom to those brave men and women, and I am proud and thankful for them.

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    1. I too am proud of the veterans and of the troops of today. Their bravery will last for more than their lifetimes, and we must never forget the sacrifices they made, and their families made, also.

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  2. I'm sorry for your losses, Mikki. Thankful for our men and women in uniform. Sad for the losses of our heroes. God bless and comfort the families of those who never came home.

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    1. Those who died and those who lived are all heroes in my book. I just wish we took the kind of care of veterans as we should, and as they deserve.

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  3. What a moving post and a fascinating story. I'm hoping this will find its way in one of your stories.

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    1. Thanks, Suzanne. Maybe someday. There are times, even now after so long, when his death is still an open wound.

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  4. So sorry for your pain, Mikki. I had chills and tears when I read this. We owe much to families like yours.
    May you only know health and happiness.

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  5. Thank you, Loren. We are but one family, among all those who have lost loved ones, or had them come home so badly, so sadly wounded. Few return these days without some evidence of PTS...even my husband had it when he returned from Korea, but it wasn't recognized then.

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  6. Oh Mikki that is so sad and I'm so sorry for your loss. But what a brave brother you had. He died for his country and there is no greater honor than that. I'm sure he's looking down upon you right now thanking you for remembering and honoring him.

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    1. Thanks, Allyn. I hope he knows how proud of him I am, and that he has never been forgotten.

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