Memorial Day 2009

It's the beginning of summer. The first long weekend filled with warm weather and good times. Barbecues, picnics, beer...

Revolutionary War: 217,000 serving, 6,188 wounded, 4,435 dead

Boating, swimming, ballgames...

Civil War: 3,213,363 serving, 354,805 wounded, 191,963 dead

Getting together with friends to celebrate the beginning of the long, hot summer...

World War I: 4,734,991 serving, 204,002 wounded, 53,402 dead

Watermelon...

World War II: 16,112,566 serving, 671,846 wounded, 291,557 dead

Kids everywhere, running, playing, carefree and happy...

Korea: 5,720,000 serving, 103,284 wounded, 33,741 dead

Graduations, gatherings, the easy, laid-back, hazy days of summer...

Vietnam: 8,744,000 serving, 153,303 wounded, 47,424 dead

Let's all remember that this weekend, this Monday, this day is about more than the good things in life. It is about those who made the ultimate sacrifice to guarantee those good things for the rest of us. We cannot allow it to be anything less.

Gulf War: 575,000 serving, 467 wounded, 147 dead

Remember by taking part in the Nation Moment of Remembrance. At 3pm, local time, give them a minute of your time. Give them your thoughts. Do something as simple as ringing a bell three times. Give them the respect they deserve. They gave us their bodies, their blood, and their very lives.

Iraq War: 140,000 serving, 31,156 wounded, 4,300 dead

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell was a helicopter pilot who went missing on March 24, 1970 while on a mission in Cambodia. His remains were recovered and he was interned at Arlington National Cemetery on August 16, 2001. He wrote the following on January 1, 1970. They are words that apply today...

If you are able
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take on gentle moment to embrace
those gentle heros
you left behind.

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart... should swell into a mighty chorus of remembrance, gratitude and rededication on this solemn occasion. -- Abraham Lincoln

Give them your thanks. It's the least that we can do. We owe them everything.