Fw: Keeping the Vigil - A Veteran's Perspective of Memorial Day

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from a friend...

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Granville

Sunday, May 28, 2006 3:27 AM

Keeping the Vigil - A Veteran's Perspective of Memorial Day

 

 

 

 

Dear Relatives and Friends:

 

 

 

Below, you will find an article I wrote for our local town newspaper, for which

I am a regular guest columnist. Tonight, I have been emailing copies to

relevant sites and some members of Congress, and I have the good fortune to be

able to send it to you. Please feel free to post or circulate it as you wish.

May you have a meaningful Memorial Day.

 

 

 

 

 

<article begins>

 

 

 

Keeping the Vigil - A Veteran's Perspective of Memorial Day

 

 

 

By Granville Angell - Lincoln Times-News, May 26, 2006

 

 

 

For many years, Memorial Day has been a special day for me, because it is a day

when company comes calling. I don't mean the typical kind of company, like

relatives for the weekend. It's more like a day of joining, where I know all

across the country my fellow citizens are taking special time to remember those

who have fallen in battle for the sake of preserving American Democracy. Why do

I, and so many other veterans, experience Memorial Day as a time of company

calling? Because we are the ones who stood beside those who fell in battle. It

is a day when the rest of America joins us in the vigil.

 

 

 

For us, every day is Memorial Day. I don't think a day goes by when I don't

think of friends and fellow soldiers who died in Vietnam. I remember Jim Zeimet.

At 20 years of age, I thought I was a hot pilot when I graduated from Army

Aviation School, but he taught me in-country to fly a helicopter ambulance like

it was an extension of my own body. And baby-faced Arv Silverberg, who loaned

me the poncho liner I didn't get to return because he was no longer with us. I

wish I could name them all. I think of the brave crews I was honored to fly

with, some of whom had their last flight home in a body bag. Then there were the

countless wounded we picked up, all of whom had encountered one or more of the

countless ways of dying in a war zone. Some took their last breaths in the back

of our helicopter; while others lived on to join the ranks of the living who

hold the vigil on Memorial Day.

 

 

 

Like many vets, I wonder why I was spared the fatal bullet or explosion that

shredded the next guy standing in my steps. How was I worthy to crawl out of

the burning wreckage of a helicopter when my best friend did not? For veterans,

the " what ifs " and the " if onlys " and the " woulda-coulda-shoulda's " take on a

burden equal to the weight and lost time of those whose soulless bodies were

brought back to be buried in the soil of the land for which they gave their

lives. How could we not remember them? They died for us. As brothers in arms,

who once stood in ranks behind us and beside us, they are us. How could we not

wonder and marvel at why Life spared us, while selecting those who would go on

before us? How could we do otherwise but live out the remainder of our lives

holding a silent vigil in our hearts for those who made the ultimate sacrifice?

 

 

 

On Memorial Day, we who had the horror and honor of watching them go, stand and

wait before the rest of America in anticipation and appreciation of the full

company of those who will join us in the vigil.

 

 

 

And every year, that company seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Many of

us perceive that it's because the real meaning of Memorial Day was diluted by

the legislation that made the holiday part of the three day weekend,

beginning-of-Summer event. After all, it's not a comfortable thing to think

about things like war and pain and the sacrifice of death, so why not put it out

of our minds with our barbeques and boating trips and uh, oh, we can't forget

the sales - after all, what would Memorial Day be without the sales?

 

 

 

So, if you are among those who have lost touch with the true meaning of Memorial

Day, will you at least take a moment out of your barbeque, or vacation, or

whatnot, to remember those who gave their lives to preserve the ground under

your barbeque grill and the livelihood you live that allowed your vacation? At

least this small act will be appreciated by those of us who don't have the

option of putting those ultimate sacrifices out of our minds.

 

 

 

There are two reasons why veterans don't have that option. The first, we

already covered. We, who had the horror and honor of watching them go, would

never leave behind the sacredness of their memories in our hearts. For us, the

vigil is not optional. The second reason, for veterans, has to do with the fact

that the fallen are us. Our lives are forever inextricably interwoven with the

lives of those who have fallen, because it is the duty of those who have

survived to carry on the essence and ideals of those who gave their lives for

us.

 

 

 

Many veterans will tell you, to have survived where others did not has imbued

our lives with a special kind of meaning and grace. But, deeper yet, a sense of

obligation. So many of us survivors question whether we deserve this honor and

we have struggled in our lives to live up to the sacrifice of those who fell

beside us. It's not easy trying to make your life count for all those who

didn't have that chance.

 

 

 

It was additionally painful returning to a country that didn't offer that

chance. So many of us came back home to be blamed for our service; to be called

baby-killers, and denied jobs, benefits and other life opportunities; to be

ignored in our needs for the nurturance of our wounds - physical and

psychological - by a country that claimed to be a " grateful nation. " So many of

us have come to envy those who fell beside us - those who were spared the

epithets and disgrace and dishonor for doing what we had to do in the name of

our country - that some of us chose to leave this life by our own hand, rather

than face further pain. But, worst of all, is the increasing loneliness of the

vigil.

 

 

 

It's having the memory of our fallen brothers and sisters " lumped in " with the

festivities of the summer kick-off weekend. It's the taking of only a few token

moments to remember and consider, while grass grows high on many grave sites and

the most moving emotional experience is all-too-often the thrill of a purchase

at a Memorial Day sale.

 

 

 

We, the veterans of America's wars, appeal to the American people. Ignore us if

you will. Deny our benefits and under-fund the programs we need, if you must.

Don't vote in your apathy over the freedoms for which so many gave their

ultimate sacrifice. But please don't continue to slip away from the ranks of

those who keep the vigil. If you do nothing else, please stand beside those of

us who do not have the option of forgetting, because we need your strength. We

need your affirmation that we are not alone in remembering the sacrifices of

those who fell beside us. At least do this. Remember Memorial Day and keep its

meaning.

 

 

 

" Support the Troops " is not a slogan on a bumper sticker. Because the sacrifices

of war are forever, it's an eternal proposition. Only by remembering can we

come to an eventual realization of the futility of war as a means to settle

human differences.

 

 

 

© 5/2006 by Granville Angell: May be reproduced and circulated, unedited,

without commercial profit.

 

 

 

Granville Angell, EdS, LPC, NCC, a licensed professional counselor with 30 years

experience, invites readers to submit questions for his column to his web site:

www.transitions-counseling.com . He may be reached at his private practice,

TRANSITIONS Personal & Family Counseling Services by emailing

angell(at)transitions-counseling.com.