The Memorial Day Blog

Without the brave efforts of all the soldiers, 
Sailors, airmen, and marines and their families,

This Nation, along with our allies around the world, 
Would not stand so boldly,

Shine so brightly and live so freely.
- Lane Evans

One of the hardest things I've ever had to do in life was witness a fellow soldier, and wife to a soldier I like to call my brother, receive his body from Afghanistan with that flag draped over the casket. I've had the great pleasure of being able to train at Fort Knox & Fort Benning in the earliest stages of my Army journey, and it's there that I formed bonds and friendships with people from all over the world and people that I thought I've never would meet in my lifetime. Most of those guys ended up going to duty stations that had nothing to do with my job in particular and it some very dangerous places. Half of my training class came right out and went straight overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan, by my three year mark in the military, I knew roughly 15 guys that ended up serving two tours and working on their third. There are those soldiers that simply just sacrifice it all for the common good of this country and it's allies. That's why when I see the events unfolding as of late in this country, it angers me because a lot of good men lost their lives to protect it and this is not what we want to come back home to. My brothers didn't go out there and risk everything, just to come back home to chaos and unrest, and to not be taken care of mentally and physically due to the side affects of war. Then the ones that didn't make at back home, who have the families here that have to learn to live without their husband, wife, sister, brother, dad, uncle, aunt for the rest of their lives, is just deplorable.

Today just reminds me of how I've known so many great men and women, so many with bright smiles, stupid jokes, great advice, and caring personalities, who didn't make it back home. I'm a pretty strong person when it comes to the affairs of keeping my emotions in check during time were crying is permitted, but having a young child come up to you and say it's ok and that their mom or dad was a hero, who gave their life to make theirs better, I just can't keep it together. At the end of the day, Memorial Day is about those men and women who go over there, deal with the harsh realities of the world outside of our borders and they defend this great country from all those wishing to harm us, by giving their life. This is also for all of those soldiers that came home and couldn't get back over the hump from being overseas, and they committed suicide. This is for those soldiers who came back home with injuries that they couldn't over come and passed away because of them. This is the day where I remember the men who I went through some of the toughest of times with in training, where we learned so much about ourselves, and overcame physical and mental limitations. This is for those men and women whom I've never met, they never met me, but they choose to have my back and do things to ensure that we didn't have to send a whole unit of troops to. Today is your day guys, and there is not a day that you are not missed.

There are tons of movies, Youtube clips, people that write books, but the fact of the matter is that when a soldier gives their life for this country, it can't be quantified. It's not something that you can put into words, and it's not something that you can say you can relate to easily. Seeing little reminders of guys that aren't here now randomly always just reminds me the things that soldiers have to do to make sure my family is safe, and it's just so much man, it really is. You lose a piece of you every single time it happens, and it just angers me that there's nothing that I can do about it. But all in all, today is about those soldiers, today is about the ones who's paid the ultimate price for the security of this great nation. So take the time out today and just reflect the best way you can for them and just pay respects to them because they are the ones who make sure you can sleep at night soundly.

R.I.P. to all my brothers and sisters in arms, you are missed.