Memorial Day Tribute [Archive] - Debate Policy

Kathianne

05-26-2013, 08:49 AM

My dad made it a point to my brother and I that Memorial Day was for those that lost their lives in service to their country. Veteran's Day is set aside for all vets, living, and dead and those currently serving.

How Memorial Day became a 'holiday,' used to make him sort of sad. Not so sad that he wouldn't open up the lake house, but quiet, even at the parade.

I've come across several posts today, that reminded me of my dad. I do miss him so.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/349125/i-drive-your-truck-lee-habeeb

I'm 'breaking the rules' and won't complain if someone cuts some of this, but the story is just too real. Jared, the young man killed, the object of his dad's story, earned the Medal of Honor:

It happens now and then. You hear a story so sad, so beautiful, so filled with loss and pain and grief and love, that it makes you cry. Really cry.

Two years ago, I was making a grocery run for my family on Memorial Day when a story came on the local NPR station in Oxford, Miss. It was about a father whose son had been killed in action in northwest Afghanistan. The father was Paul Monti; his son was Sergeant Jared Monti. Jared died in Afghanistan trying to save the life of one of his men. Jared was 30 years old when he died, and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroism under fire. But that was small consolation to his father: The son he loved and admired was gone, forever.

We then heard from Jared’s dad. His grief was palpable, as he told the NPR reporter some stories about his son. Stories of how his son was always helping people, especially people less fortunate than himself. His father nearly choked up telling a story about how his son once took a brand-new kitchen set he and his buddies at Fort Bragg had just purchased for their home, and gave it away to a fellow soldier’s family.

“One day his buddies came home and the kitchen set was missing,” his father recounted. “And they asked him where it was and Jared said, ‘Well, I was over at one of my soldier’s houses, and his kids were eating on the floor, so I figured they needed the kitchen set more than we did.’ And so the $700 kitchen set disappeared. That’s what he did.”

His dad told the reporter that his son shunned any kind of notoriety or attention. “All of his medals went in a sock drawer,” Jared’s dad said. “No one ever saw them; he didn’t want to stand out.”

Then came the part of the interview that hit me hardest: It was the moment when Paul Monti talked about his son’s truck, and why he still has it, and still drives it.

“What can I tell you? It’s him,” Jared’s father explained, nearly choking on his words. “It’s got his DNA all over it. I love driving it because it reminds me of him, though I don’t need the truck to remind me of him. I think about him every hour of every day.”

I was already tearing up before that story about Jared’s truck. But as the details piled up — the truck was a Dodge 4X4 Ram 1500 with decals on it that included the 10th Mountain Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, an American flag, and a Go Army sticker — I lost it.

And there I was sitting in my car in a Walmart parking lot on a sunny Memorial Day in my hometown crying hard. Crying like a child. Crying as if I’d lost my child.

I wasn’t the only one in a car crying that day. It turns out that a Nashville songwriter named Connie Harrington was in her car, too, listening to the very same story. Moved to tears, she pulled over to the side of the road, scribbling notes as the story proceeded.

She wrote down detail upon detail, everything she could remember. When she got back home, Harrington couldn’t get that story of the soldier’s father and his son’s truck out of her mind. So she did what writers do, and turned the words of that grieving father into a song. With the help of two co-writers, the finished product found its way to singer Lee Brice, who recorded the song called, aptly, “I Drive Your Truck.”

Last month, the song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.

The YouTube video has nearly 5 million views. If you watch it, bring a stack of Kleenex tissues. It is that moving.

But this remarkable story didn’t end there. It turns out that Jared’s father got a message on Facebook from a woman whose son had died in the same battle Jared died in.

“She sent me a message that she had heard the song,” Paul Monti told NPR last week, “and that I had to listen to it. She knew I drove Jared’s truck and she drove her son’s truck.”

Paul Monti told NPR that he remembered not being able to get through the entire song. “I’d get into it a few bars or so and kind of welled up,” he explained.

But he still didn’t know that it was his interview — his own words — that inspired the song. That the song was about him and his son and his son’s truck.

http://youtu.be/yCSMCgqlc-0

Caught this off facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/tom.mccuin/posts/10201365875485749

Tom McCuin
Thursday at 9:49pm near Mount Vernon, VA ·

*
Dear USA,
Monday is Memorial Day. It is the day we honor our war dead, those warriors who gave what Lincoln called, "the last full measure of devotion." Enjoy your barbecues, your mattress sales, and your community pool openings, but remember you do so because those honored dead made it possible. Please do not offer your thanks to me or any other living veteran. It is not our day. We came home carrying our shields; they came home carried on theirs. Memorial Day the day we raise our glasses to absent comrades. Thank me and my living brothers-in-arms (and sisters, too) on Tuesday. But on Monday, turn your thoughts to the gardens of stone around the globe. See you at Section 60.

Speaking of vets, not those that have died, Memorial Day can be quite hard on them. Certainly true of those younger folks that served or are serving in Iraq/Afghanistan and lord knows how many other locales, but also those from previous conflicts such as Vietnam, Korea, and others we fail to remember. Suicides in the military and by vets is and has been rising. Sometimes the memories become too much, there is survivor guilt.

To any that have an interest or knows someone they are worried about:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2013/05/some-thoughts-on-military-suicide.html

Matt Burden is the originator of Blackfive and from IL. I have read his book numerous times. Also have corresponded with him a bit. A brilliant mind and a dedicated retired officer. A patriot, he ran for office in IL, but lost. He also shares my alma mater. ;)

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2013/05/the-gates-of-heaven-1.html

What is Memorial Day really about? While we are busy gearing up for the weekend, I thought I should post this annual reminder about the holiday. It may surprise some of you.

If you are relatively new to Blackfive, you should read this story about a Memorial Day ten years ago - Mathew Schram's Memorial Day. And, unfortunately, we've posted many memorials to our Fallen Americans.

The words to "Taps" are:

Day Is Done,
Gone the Sun,
From the Earth,
From the Hill,
From the Sky,
All Is Well,
Safely Rest,
God Is Nigh

When Taps is played at dusk, it has a completely different meaning than when Taps is played during the day. No soldier really wants to hear it played during daylight. For when the bugle plays Taps in the daylight...that means a soldier has fallen...There is a belief among some that Taps is the clarion call to open the gates of heaven for the fallen warrior and letting them know to "Safely Rest"...

Of course, Memorial Day is about remembering the sacrifices that our military men and women have made over the last 237 years. We are still a young nation, but one that has made many sacrifices to remain free. We should also take time to remember the families who have lost loved ones.

We have focused on just a few of the fallen over the last few years. I've lost good friends during the War on Terror. And I write about the others to ensure that we don't forget their sacrifices - I do that for me as much as for anybody.

I can't speak for the friends of the many others who have fallen, but for Mat, Cooter, and Mikey, I can say this:

It is important to remember them, and it is just as important to enjoy yourself this weekend. To spend time with your family and friends. Have a beer while grilling Wisconsin brats (Schram-bo!) in the backyard while watching your kids play tag.

What better assurance to them that they did not die in vain?

Enjoying your freedom and understanding it's value is the best way to honor the sacrifices of my friends.

That's the way they'd want you to spend Memorial Day.

... Links and more at site.

To all the vets here, thank you. Monday, I'll pray for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and their families. Then I'll celebrate what our country is supposed to mean, with my family.