Memorial Day is one of those holidays people appreciate because we get a day off from work. It’s exciting to get a break from the same old repetitions, traffic and school routine. It’s a day we get to hang out with the family, bring in summer and taste bar-b-que like it’s your first time and if you’re like me, enjoy the free entry to the hottest, coolest time in Texas – Schlitterbahn! As a kid it was just a holiday that marked the start of Summer–we’d return to Mississippi to visit Grandma’s and enjoy the days playing baseball, picking pecans and partying with B.B. King.
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Now of course Memorial Day is so much more than that. It isn’t a day for us to hurry to the beaches and scurry to get out the red, white and blue cookout decorations. It’s a Military thing. Memorial Day is exactly what it says: Remembering the fallen soldiers that have left us. *Not for Veterans, as I have heard in recent conversations. (That’s Veterans Day). The first Memorial Day was May 1, 1865 in Charleston, S.C. commissioned by the Black residents and missionaries at a former racetrack where Confederates held captured Union soldiers. 257 soldiers died while captured and were buried in unmarked graves, so the Charleston citizens gave them a proper burial. This Memorial take a moment to think of the fallen heroes while enjoying the day off from work and not having to take the little ones to school and deal with the school parking lot checkers. For me, I will be celebrating the graduation of several cousins back home and though I haven’t lost a Battle I served with, I have lost ancestors who served and I have played Taps and saluted plenty of caskets. Taking a moment of silence in remembrance of those before me will be an honor.
It wasn’t until I was in the Army myself when it all hit differently. Being a part of a such a small and intimate force and literally being a signature away from death, you learn to appreciate life and the world around you a lot more. One day you and your Battles are living a regular life then the next it’s orders for deployment and you can either both come back, one could come back or neither of you. I was also a part of the Funeral detail for fallen Soldiers & Veterans and it never got easier. No matter how many times you play Taps or fold a flag off of a Soldier’s casket you still feel the tightness in your chest, the flood gates of your eyes open and the pride swells up as you send off a fellow Soldier. Every single time it gets more intense. So, connecting to the day is almost automatic considering my orders could have easily taken me to the Sandbox with a chance of not coming back. I would have been the one being remembered and eventually one day I will.
