26 Sunday May 2019
Posted in Save Our Children
Tags
As we remember those who have fallen this Memorial Day, I share the thoughts of fellow blogger Larry “Dutch” Woller, a Vietnam veteran.
Maybe No More Children Will Die
I sit here looking at the news
The powers wanted peace they say,
And while they spoke, bombs were dropped
20 children died that day!
Read more at On the Path Least Traveled
25 Sunday May 2014
Posted in Human Behavior, United States
Tags
Fallen warriors, Memorial Day, National cemeteries, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, U.S. Armed Forces, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Civil War headstones on Memorial Day
Alexandria National Cemetery – United States
Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA)
Monday, 26 May 2014, is Memorial Day here in the United States. Every year on the final Monday in May, Americans remember and pay their respects to all those who have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. For those families who have recently lost a loved one during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the pain is still a raw, open wound. Lots of these families will be visiting national cemeteries and memorials across our nation. To mark our most solemn federal holiday, others will take part in thousands of parades.
As a nation honoring our fallen warriors, remembrance is not enough. We should also reflect on the scourge of war: on our families, our communities, our nation, our world. When it’s not our loved one out on the battle front, do we really care? When the war zones are far away in distant foreign lands, do we feel the pain, the fear, and the loss?
03 Sunday Jun 2012
Posted in Human Behavior, United States
Tags
American servicemen and women, Memorial Day, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Suicide among American soldiers, Trauma of combat, U.S. Armed Forces, Vietnam War, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Memorial Day 2012 – Long Beach – California – USA
Source: http://www.presstelegram.com
As a high school teacher in Guyana, I worked for one year with Sister Barbara (fictitious name), an American Christian missionary in her late thirties. She was the first American I had met with a personal connection with the Vietnam War. My knowledge about the war had come from reading and the movies.
On Memorial Day, May 28, when Americans remembered the men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, I recalled Sister Barbara and her older brother who had served in the Vietnam War.
When her brother returned from the Vietnam War, Sister Barbara had told me, he was no longer the caring and happy person she had loved and looked up to. He had become withdrawn and always on edge. Never a heavy drinker, he started drinking to drown the haunting nightmares. Within a year of returning home, he had died on the street. Sister Barbara did not share the details of his death.
Losing her older and only sibling had changed Sister Barbara’s life. Since she never mentioned her parents, I assumed that they had also passed away. That she spoke to me about her brother, over ten years after his death, indicated how much she still felt his loss. Perhaps, her missionary work in a poor, developing nation was her way of giving meaning to her life.
In 2009, more American soldiers deployed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had taken their lives than those who had died on the battlefront that year. Forty five percent of them were between 18 and 25 years of age (study done by U.S. Army Public Health Command). With the growing number of soldiers suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who have committed suicide, following their return home after deployment, it is important that we also remember their sacrifices on the battlefront. They are no less warriors than those who died in action.
That our warriors suffer the trauma of combat is a sign of their humanity. We were not created to slaughter our fellow human beings but rather to preserve and protect life. Engaging in warfare, in order to defend our nation and to protect our families and our way of life, requires that we release the dark, vile side of our human nature.
Our warriors who took (and will continue to take) their lives at battle’s end also died on the battlefield. They, too, should be remembered yearly on Memorial Day. Their despair in the face of atrocities and carnage on the battlefield should give us pause in our personal pursuit of happiness and freedom.
Three Worlds One Vision 