Remembering Memorial Day’s subjects

MICHELE MARR

In 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, which cost this

country 620,000 lives -- 511,000 more than the Vietnam War, 103,000

more than World War I and World War II combined -- Gen. John A.

Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, designated May 30

as Decoration Day.

Now called Memorial Day, its purpose was to honor our Civil War

casualties. Logan proposed “strewing with flowers or otherwise

decorating the graves of [those] who died in defense of their country

... whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet

church yard.”

On that first Decoration Day, 5,000 participants decorated the

graves of some 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried in

Arlington National Cemetery. Others did the same in cemeteries large

and small across the nation.

Today, the soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (also known

as The Old Guard, referring to their history, which dates back to the

U.S.- Mexican War) decorate each of more than 260,000 graves at

Arlington with small American flags at the start of what is now a

three-day weekend.

The soldiers, nearly one for every 200 graves, keep vigil until

the weekend’s end, ensuring none of the flags are removed or lay

fallen.

Two years ago, a few weeks before Memorial Day, I visited

Arlington National Cemetery. As I walked among its spring-flowered

grounds, it was surprisingly hushed. Little more than the songs of

resident birds, the clicking of cameras and the drone of distant

traffic wafted across a light breeze.

I walked among the sun-washed gravestones spread out in perfect

rows across the grounds’ expanse, farther than my eyes could see --

each white stone a testament to someone’s child, perhaps someone’s

spouse, someone’s parent, someone lost to us, someone beloved by God.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, bearing the inscription, “Here

rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God,” has

been guarded by sentinels, a select group from the Old Guard, 24

hours a day, 365 days a year, since 1937.

It’s impossible, of course, to give every member of our armed

forces who died in one of our wars the same constant reverence given

the soldier buried in the Tomb of the Unknown. But since World War I,

Memorial Day has been intended to honor them all.

In 1994, the Rev. Dick Kozelka, former minister, now retired, of

the First Congregational Church of Minnesota in Minneapolis, penned

these words as part of a longer Memorial Day prayer: “God, lift the

hearts of those for whom this holiday is not just diversion, but

painful memory and continued deprivation. Bless those whose dear ones

have died ... serving their [country].”

Ten years later, Memorial Day, four days away, we are once again

at war. For many of our nation’s families the loss of a loved one who

served in our armed forces is not yet a painful memory; it is a raw,

still-open wound.

It will be impossible for them to mark this weekend with a family

potluck, a shoreline picnic or barbecue, apart from heavy hearts --

if celebrate is the word to use at all.

For 103 years Memorial Day was commemorated on May 30, until in

1971 Congress declared it a national holiday to be observed on the

last Monday in May, creating the three-day weekend we have become so

accustomed to.

While we look forward to the long weekend, as the weather warms

and summer is about to begin, shifting its observance from May 30 to

the last Monday in May seems, over time, to have shifted its focus

away from the true purpose of the holiday. Logan had hoped to ensure

the “ravages of time” would never cause us as a nation to forget the

cost of the freedom we treasure and enjoy.

I wonder what he thinks, if he knows, that 132 years later, our

42nd president signed a “National Moment of Remembrance Act,” asking

“each American to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. local time on

[Memorial Day] to reflect and remember the sacrifices made by our

fallen heroes.”

In a statement, signing President Bill Clinton wrote, “This

simple, brief reflection asks little compared with what we have asked

of our servicemen and women.”

I can only say, amen. Surely we can, whether on Sunday at worship

or on Monday, alone or gathered with friends or family, offer those

who Clinton described as heroes, “those Americans who died while

defending our nation and its values,” something more than a minute of

a 4,320-minute weekend.

On its website, https://www.washingtonpost.com, the Washington Post

has posted “Faces of the Fallen: U.S. Fatalities in Iraq.” It’s a

moving tribute that can be viewed by month, from March 2003 to May

2004, and by branch of service.

Each entry includes a photograph, when available, and a brief

biography that includes the hometown of each service man or woman.

Each one of them is a testament ... to someone’s child, perhaps

someone’s spouse, someone’s parent, someone lost to us, someone

beloved by God -- someone who has earned our reverence.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at [email protected].