Remembering Our Fallen - 2024

 I wrote the following Memorial Day weekend in 2013.

It's Memorial Day and I am sitting here remembering those I served with who died while on active duty.  A pilot who couldn't eject from his jet while on a training mission over the Yellow Sea.  Two guys who were just swimming at the on-base beach after a 12 hour shift, who went beyond the rope and were never seen again.  A young airman killed by a drunk driver while on the way to his duty assignment one morning.

In my mind, anyone who dies while wearing our nation's uniform deserves to be remembered today.  The 241 Marines who died in the bombing in Beirut and the 248 soldiers who died in a plane crash at Gander while on their way home.

Same goes for those who simply could not go on living after their experiences in combat.  When a military member takes his or her own life because they just can't go on living with what they endured, in my mind they also died while serving.  The question is, did we fail because we didn't prevent their end?  I have no answer to that question.  It is as they say "above my pay grade".

On Memorial Day weekend in 2017, Ivanka Trump's "brand" posted the following tweet.

The reality is that most folk think of Memorial Day as a long weekend to travel, barbecue and celebrate the unofficial start to summer. I find the actual text of 36 U.S. Code § 116 - Memorial Day to be a clear message of what the holiday is meant to be.

(a)Designation.—

The last Monday in May is Memorial Day.

(b)Proclamation.—The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation—

(1) calling on the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day by praying, according to their individual religious faith, for permanent peace;

(2) designating a period of time on Memorial Day during which the people may unite in prayer for a permanent peace;

(3) calling on the people of the United States to unite in prayer at that time; and

(4) calling on the media to join in observing Memorial Day and the period of prayer

***

I was thinking back (yeah, I do way too much of that) to the afternoon of March 21, 1987. It was a Saturday and I was doing my part-time job anchoring the news on what was then All-News KNUU 970 AM. There was a crash of a California Air National Guard fighter jet in the San Bernardino Mountains. We learned later that day that the pilot and his weapons system officer (WSO) had perished in the crash. Because Captain Martin was a celebrity in his own right as well as being the son of Dean Martin had coverage laser-focused on his death. Without giving details, let me say I was told how awful it was that a news station in Las Vegas gave almost no attention to that WSO, Captain Ramon Ortiz, who was from Las Vegas.

Both of their deaths were tragic and as worthy of being honored on Memorial Day as any other military member who died in service to our nation.

***

More than 3,500 military personnel have received the Medal of Honor. Roughly 18.5% of those so recognized individuals received their Medal of Honor posthumously. While their actions were and are the stuff of legends, all of the fallen deserve to be honored. In my 15-month assignment on Guam, my 460 person unit lost five of its members during my time there. We honor them on this day as well.

We honor the eight people who died in the ill-fated Operation Eagle Claw during the attempt to rescue the Americans who were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Teheran.

We honor those who fell on the battlefield, who died during training exercises and who died while wearing the uniform; no matter the cause of their deaths.

We honor Colonel Pat Ryan, commander of the 21st Tactical Fighter Wing who died when his F-15 crashed into the Yellow Sea during an exercise known as Team Spirit 85.

We honor all the fallen, without regard to their rank, or how they died; who passed while serving.