The Chronic Curmudgeon

So today, I'll pause for a moment to remember the 498,000 United States soldiers and 365,000 Confederate soldiers in wool uniforms who died on the fields of Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Antietam as our nation fought to remain united and to define freedom for all men. I'll recall the memories of the doughboys of World War I, the men who went "Over There" to make the world safe for democracy. More than 116,000 Americans died in that war with another 204,000+ injured in the war that was fought to end all wars.

I remember the gallant and heroic men and women who fought World War II only 25 years later. I remember the courage and bravery of our military on the bloody beaches of Normandy, the killing fields at Anzio, the brave men who sailed and flew the Pacific to take islands back from Japan one at a bloody time. I'll remember the 400,000+ who never came home to enjoy the freedom they so courageously defended.

I remember the men and women who served in the Korean peninsula in the early 1950s, and the 51,000 who died in that far-off corner of the world in America's "forgotten" war. I remember and honor those 58,000 who gave their lives in Vietnam, and who were caught in the crossfire when America engaged in a morally ambivalent war that deeply divided its people. Angry over the lies told by military and political leadership, the American people were unable or unready to pay proper respects to the dead of Vietnam or their living counterparts until many years later. But by today, they have taken their honored place alongside their fellow servicemen and women.

I remember the 529 members of my own generation who died in the first Gulf War, and the 184 American servicemen and women who gave their lives in Afghanistan hunting down those who attacked our nation and would attack again if given the chance.

I remember and honor the 1,302 American men and women who have given their lives in Iraq since 2003. I am full of disdain and disgust for the administration that put them there by lying to the world and misleading even our own military about the nature of the threat we faced and the purpose of the campaign; but that does not change the respect and admiration I have for the people who did what they were asked to do, did so with extraordinary bravery and courage, and whose sacrifices we must now allow to be in vain.

I'll pay silent tribute today to the soldiers who lie under white markers with their names inscribed at Arlington National Cemetary, and the nameless thousands who lie under white crosses and stars of David in Normandy, to those who lie in private cemetaries all across America, and to those whose remains were never found.

But as a column in the Detroit Free Press today points out, Memorial Day is for remembering the patriots who gave their lives, but for me it is also a day for remembering the patriots who gave part of their youth. And so today I remember all of those soldiers and sailors and Marines and airmen whose lives were forever changed by things they saw as young men on the world's battlefields while wearing our nation's uniform.

Each of them deserves the thanks and remembrance of a grateful nation. Today, they have mine. Thank you.