Memorial Day

We learn about the battlefield and all the action and the civilians that lost their lives. With the stories we know and learn it’s important saluting to the troops that sacrifice their lives for us. And that is why it is very important to take a moment of silence. To reflect our lives on the ones that were taken. Every 29th of May, we salute and celebrate the retired soldiers and the active ones by throwing a parade in their honor, showing how much love we have for their sacrifice as a family.

Memorial day was first known as Decoration Day. It originated in the years of the Civil War, and then became an official federal holiday in 1971. The Grand Army of the Republic who founded in Decatur, Illinois. And they decorated the graves of the dead. Decoration is held on a Sunday on late spring or early summer, for some cemeteries. Memorial Day is the day of remembering who died while serving, and Veterans Day is celebrating those who served.

We had two retired soldiers talk about what happened during their experiences in the Vietnam and Korean wars. Burt Miller talks about the great battle of the Chosin Reservoir. “…This is when the Marines were completely surrounded, at the Chosin Reservoir, when you talk about the Frozen Chosen. And they fought their way out. And they brought their dead out with them.”

Robert Wolaver, Vietnam veteran, talks about a person who he would like to be memorialized by this day. Keith Vincent Huffstutler, 18 years old, went through Pathfinder Skill and graduated. He went on a three week leave before reporting for Vietnam. On November 1, 1967  he was killed charging a machine gun position while he was out serving with an infantry company. Robert said that at the time, his company did not know who died, they just knew that someone had been killed. He said that it took him 45 years to find out when he had died and where.

It is important to remember these stories, to understand what happened to these fine individuals who either gave some, or gave all. And on days such as this, we remember all of those people who truly gave it all.