Never Forget

A three day weekend.... great weather, fun times which make for great memories. While I'm on the topic of "memories", I think people all too often forget the true meaning of the holidays our country celebrates.

Many people are thankful for a three day weekend (and who isn't!). I write this entry as a reminder to all of us who are able to celebrate this day with friends, family and loved ones. Memorial Day, a day to remember our country's veterans. Many of those veterans who didn't get a chance to live their life's dreams because they made the ultimate sacrifice...

The sacrifice of giving their life for our country so we could continue to enjoy our freedoms. Freedoms we take for granted because we've always had them. Read the papers, watch the news and you'll see there are still many places in our world where people don't have the same freedoms as we do.

Am I patriotic, yeah I am. I fly the American Flag in front of my house. My father retired as a warrant officer from the U.S. Navy after 23 years. He made his deployments to "Yankee Station" off the coast of Vietnam. I followed in his footsteps and served in the U.S. Navy for two enlistments and then some. My oldest son, proudly serves in the U.S. Navy also.

On Saturday my youngest son and I were running errands. We were stuck in traffic on I-80 creeping along very slowly. This SUV passed to my left as I saw this sailor in uniform seated in the right front passenger seat wearing his dress blues. As typical of traffic, they stopped as I slowly came along side the SUV. The sailor's window was rolled down. I rolled my window down and as I stopped in traffic next to the SUV he looked over.

I told him "Thank you for what you do." The word "thanks" just doesn't seem to be enough. Our veterans went to war as young men and returned as heroes in some conflicts and as villains in others. Regardless of the politics they were called on to do a job either by choice or the draft.

My son asked me "Why did you do that Dad?" How can you truly explain to someone as young as him the importance of our service members serving all over our world protecting our way of live and the sacrifices they make and the sacrifices our veterans have made?

Young men and women who had to put their lives on hold, young men and women who's last goodbyes were not long enough before leaving for war, not knowing that it would truly be their last goodbye.

So while we're all enjoying our extended weekend, please take a small moment of your time to honor and thank those veterans past and present .