BLACKHAWKNJ
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- Oct 25, 2006
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Memorial Day is coming up. For most of my 75 years on this earth young Americans -I was one of them -have raised their right hands, swore to "support and defend......." and gone In Harm's Way.
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served, few lost. My paternal grandfather-never met him ,alas-was a Marine 1896-1902, my old man Army WWII, my uncle by marriage Navy post WWII, yours truly, Vietnam. My mother told me my long gone maternal grandmother told her she lost an uncle-or a great uncle-or a couple of them-at Gettysburg, Union troops, my mother mentioned-only once-a cousin by marriage who was MIA in the Bulge.
The real meaning of Memorial Day is best summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author of "The Little War of Private Post", his memoirs of his experiences in the Cuban Campaign of 1898. A rather minor affair compared to the Civil War and the bloodlettings to come of the 20th Century, but as Post reminds us:
"Whether a man falls with 20,000 others in some grand battle or all by himself on a lonely outpost, he is a 100% casualty to himself. What more is there to give ?"
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served, few lost. My paternal grandfather-never met him ,alas-was a Marine 1896-1902, my old man Army WWII, my uncle by marriage Navy post WWII, yours truly, Vietnam. My mother told me my long gone maternal grandmother told her she lost an uncle-or a great uncle-or a couple of them-at Gettysburg, Union troops, my mother mentioned-only once-a cousin by marriage who was MIA in the Bulge.
The real meaning of Memorial Day is best summed up by Charles Johnson Post, author of "The Little War of Private Post", his memoirs of his experiences in the Cuban Campaign of 1898. A rather minor affair compared to the Civil War and the bloodlettings to come of the 20th Century, but as Post reminds us:
"Whether a man falls with 20,000 others in some grand battle or all by himself on a lonely outpost, he is a 100% casualty to himself. What more is there to give ?"
