As we get ready to roast weenies and celebrate another long 3 day weekend with family and friends, please try to remember the true meaning of this day.

It is to remember our men and women who have fought and died for our country and to protect our way of life.

Freedom isn't free, someone paid for it!!! God bless the US Military, our Allies, and other unsung heroes both here and abroad.

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From wikipedia:
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 25 in 2009). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.

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Thanks, Bill. This web site is frequented by a bunch of us older Vets from wars that the current generations just read about in history books. It is nice to know that at least a few of you remember why everyone has the day off.

Nick

FWIW I remember as a small child, when it was still "Decoration day," visiting my grandparents grave with my parents. I saw a small group of old men in faded blue uniforms placing a wreath before an obelisk marked "G.A.R." I asked my father what "G.A.R." meant and he said it was the "Grand Army of The Republic." I asked him what that was, & he said it was soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

I'm a veteran of WW II & Korea, & the older members of my generation are about the age of those Civil War vets then. I thought they looked incredibly old. I guess I better not look in the mirror today.

No family Memorial Day visits for us this year. My deceased parents, one sister, & a brother-in-law are in Portland, Or. His wife, my oldest sister, is in Colville, WA. Another sister is in Redwood City, CA, one brother is in Traverse City, MI, the other brother & his wife are in Minneapolis. A sister-in-law's ashes are in the ocean off Waikiki & a grandson's ashes are scattered on his favorite mountain top nearby.

I suppose these are signs of how families dispersed after WW II, & one reason why the holiday morphed from one designed to care for the graves of departed family members, to one that honors our veterans.

My Old Man and his three brothers served in the USN in WWII, odd for four guys from Kansas. But Dad and his best friend and his brother Hap decided in '38 to go to California. There wasn't much there in the way of jobs except agriculture, which they had left Kansas to escape.

So one Sunday, they went to the recruiting offices to enlist. All the Army guy would offer was infantry, so they came back Monday and enlisted in the Navy. All three (and the two other brothers who followed the Old Man's example and became sailors) survived WWII. All are deceased except the brother, Bob, who never was wounded, but lost a leg to a drunk driver several years ago.

I've lost a lot of classmates (USNA '64, as well as others I was there with), some to enemy action, others to accidents, but they're all lost. And all of them count, because we never knew when something would go wrong.

http://www.abmc.gov/home.php
http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries.php
Thanks to the many we may have a happy Decoration Day Week-end

Every time Memorial Day comes, I too, remember going to the cemetery to lay wreaths or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes. Later, when I was old enough to drive a car, my job was the same--go to the Sewickley Cemetery, near Pittsburgh, Pa. and honor those heroes. It's been 42 years since I left that town, and sometimes I wish I never had because my roots are there, literally buried with my childhood heroes.

Every year I furnish and install a large sound system at the City of Allegan's cemetery for the post-parade speeches and tributes. I do this as my very small part in saluting ALL who served our country. This year, however, I must be with my sister on Long Island who is in ICU fighting a battle of her own.

I can't be in Allegan tomorrow, but I can still say THANKS.

God Bless you all.