#remember the fallen

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USMC Staff Sergeant Jonathan D. Davis. 22 FEB 2013.

Died of wounds sustained from IED attack while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Davis was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 32nd Georgian Liaison Team, Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. 

semperannoying:

U.S. service members assigned to Special Purpose MAGTF - Crisis Response - Central Command are pallbearers for the service members killed in action during operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27.

mrsunrepentantwarriorpriest:

I know this phrase is quite the bur to many of my friends and family. It shouldn’t even make sense. Happy Memorial Day? Be happy on the day that we’re supposed to remember everyone who will never come home? The day that people are reminded that there is a hole in their family, that one or more are missing, and that there’s a corresponding hole in the ground out there? How on earth is today ‘happy’? 

In 1868 today was set aside to decorate the graves of the honored dead to show them remembrance. May 30th was chosen because it was not the date of any particular battle. 

So, how is it that today it is the official start of summer?  A three-day weekend to barbeque, go camping, and everything else people have waited all winter to do?

Today is a day of remembrance. Now, to some that means a funeral, a wake, a bitter and solemn occasion. To others though, that means a remembrance of life and what the honored dead stood for, protected, and gave their lives for. What better representation of the freedom that some gave their all for, than the start of summer? 

While it rankles to those who need to feel the pain of loss to grieve, it does not invalidate their grief that others must celebrate life to process their grief. 

“Happy Memorial Day” actually spans this wide disparity in grief. It is both honoring the sacrifice given by enjoying the freedom that loss has bought, and feeling the void of that loss. 

We all grieve differently, with no one way better than the other. It is important on days like today to recognize all forms of grief, and allow others to feel loss how they need. 

Today is a day of dualities. Regardless of which side you find yourself on, take time to remember the other. Those we remember today gave everything to give a brighter tomorrow for those they left behind. It is okay to enjoy that brighter tomorrow, just as it is okay to feel the depth of the cost. It is also important today to remember that we are not bound to one or the other. 

Just as the flag is ordered to half-staff from morning until noon, and then quickly raised to full-staff until evening. We can allow ourselves the full span of grief to honor the fallen. 

https://youtu.be/SOIjNk__0m4

I am the mother of a veteran with ptsd. Though many fall in battle, many more fall once the gunfire goes silent. This Memorial Day, remember the fallen… all of them. Not all wounds are visible. ~Eyrliss

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