Bless Them

I didn't post a Memorial Day post. Although my great uncles fought in WW I, my father and father in law served in WW II and my great white hunter in Vietnam, I have not personally lost anyone to war.

However, over the weekend, in spite of gas being $4.15 a gallon, the great white hunter and I took a trip to Payson, AZ to visit the replica of the Vietnam War Memorial that travels around the county. It is 80% to scale and is 8 foot tall and 370 feet long. It consists of 34 panels that contain the names of 58,219 names of men and women listed as killed or missing in action during the Vietnam War. It is a gut wrenching memorial to LOSS.

This post is not to take a stand for or against war. We each have our belief about that and that is what this country is about, the right to have your opinion. It is a post about the great loss our country suffered in the past and is presently suffering again.

Forty years after my great uncles came home from WW I, they could ask "WHY?" and they had an answer. Forty years after Daddy and my father in law came home, they could ask "WHY?", and be secure that they knew why they fought. My generation asks that question now, 40 years later and there is no answer to our "WHY?". People viewing that wall have are confronted with overwhelming loss with no answers forty years later. Will those who are fighting today have a answer to that question in forty years? History will determine that.

The great white hunter was not stationed in Vietnam. He served several TDY's (temporary duty) there. He was there when our great white hunter #2 son was born. Our son was 8 months old before his Daddy saw or held him. That was the way it was, his job was to be there. I was home with two babies, making sure that I didn't read any newspaper reports of battles and death, didn't listen to TV reports and made sure I knew nothing about where things were the worse over there. I managed by putting on blinders and taking care of business, which at that time was a lot of diapers.

My first reaction to this wall was how long it was and how the names were so compacted on each panel. I started at one end to walk the length, and it was quite a journey. Short in length, long in realization of what this county lost in young, vibrant life in a few short years.

The Wall in DC is a place for people to place remembrances of their friends and loved ones, respect for the loss and to share grief. This replica is no different. All along the length were things people had laid by the panel where the name of their loved one was written. There were flowers, mostly red roses, letters, medals, stuffed animals, pictures and copies of newspaper articles about lost loved ones. There was one very interesting display that contained arrows with messages on them, with one of the arrows broken. There is a large American Indian population in this area, perhaps a custom for a fallen warrior? I would have loved to know the meaning behind the arrows. One panel had a picture of a young smiling man pasted on it, by his name.

The one thing that shook me to the core was a grave decoration like you buy for Memorial Day. It was small, made from silk flowers and simply said, "DAD." It hit me that this was, not only a tribute to a lost father, but to all those children who grew up not knowing the person behind the name on that wall. All around was LOSS, not just life but lost chances and opportunity.

There was a group gathered around one panel, people mostly our age. A man broke away from the group and grabbed for a nearby chair, put his face in his hands and broke down in deep sobs. Forty years later and the pain and loss is still there. When the great white hunter came home, we picked up our life where we had left it, raised out family and went on. Not so for so many who did not come home.........may God bless them, may we always remember them.