Here’s to the Fallen Warriors

FEATURED POSTS

May 29, 2017

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO SERVED

Today is Memorial Day. Like most Americans, I plan to take it easy, eat some ribs, hang out with the family, and enjoy the day. And although I won’t be going to any ceremonies or laying flowers on graves or listening to patriotic speeches, I will pay my private respects to those who died in defense of our country.

I was watching a military channel documentary last week, recounting the naval battles that raged in the Solomon Islands in 1942, as the Japanese desperately tried to regain control of Guadalcanal and the airstrip secured there by U.S. Marines. Using graphics and historic footage, the program showed a day-by-day account of the battles in which thousands of sailors and marines were killed. The stakes were high and the fighting was intense.

Interspersed in the account were interviews with survivors of the event – all old men at the time of the filming, many of them undoubtedly have passed by now. These World War II veterans were recounting what it was like when they were young, waiting for the attack they knew was coming, manning their guns, or working below decks to make sure all the ship’s systems were operational during the battle.

You could see these old men get animated when they described the battle scene with guns roaring, airplanes attacking, bullets ripping across decks, and ships blowing up. And then, at some point in the narrative they would stop – 60 plus years later – and struggle to compose themselves. You’d see their eyes grow misty, and their lips tremble as they tried to continue. Then they would talk quietly about their friends who died, comrades in arms who were blown apart or set afire or who bled out on the hot steel deck of a battle ship or an aircraft carrier or a destroyer.

That kind of sacrifice from the villages of Lexington and Concord to the hilly farmland of Gettysburg to the beaches at Normandy, to the hills of Korea, to the jungles of Vietnam, to the deserts of Afghanistan is what Americans have always done to defend their country’s interests. The ones that survive often return wounded both physically and mentally. Often, but not always, they also return with a strong sense of pride and ownership in the country that they defended.

Today we salute the ones who did not return, the ones who fell in the service of their country. So when you fire up the barbeque and break open the ice chest with the soda and the beer to celebrate the holiday with your family, give those fallen heroes a thought.

What you’re doing – enjoying life in a free society – is exactly what they died for.

– George Lee Cunningham

Do you have a dissenting opinion or any opinion at all on the subject? Contact me at george@georgeleecunningham.com and let me know. Meanwhile, you can always subscribe and get an email reminder of blog postings. Your name will not be shared and you may cancel at any time.

News

April 17, 2024

Minor Character

Sometimes I feel like a minor character in one of those really long James Michener historic novels. I’m one of the guys they check in on a couple of times during the course of the book and one more time when he finally kicks the bucket. In truth, that suits me just fine. I don’t want to be one of the major players – those guys who lie, cheat, sleep around, make a lot of money, kill a lot of people, and then then suffer a tragic death on Christmas Eve. I just want to be me – plugging along, having some fun, loving the same woman for years, and then quietly passing away.

March 25, 2024

Cereal Killer

I have almost given up on cereal. As a younger man, I loved a sugary treat. As an old man, who has to watch his diet, I find myself checking labels on everything. Sugar is the enemy. For instance, Cap’n Crunch – a former favorite of my wife – contains: Corn Flour, Sugar, Oat Flour, Brown Sugar, Palm and/or Coconut Oil, Salt, Reduced Iron, Yellow 5, Niacinamide, Yellow 6, BHT, Thiamin, Mononitrate, Pridoxined Hydrochloride, Rioflavin, and Folic Acid. My choice: plain old Shredded Wheat. Ingredients: wheat and BHT (a harmless preservative). Not a taste treat, but at least I’ll live to tell about it

Highway Memorials

Driving across country nowadays, we notice a growing number of roadside displays – flowers, crosses, and ribbons – marking the sites where people apparently died in traffic accidents. I do understand mourning the passing of somebody you love, but I’m not sure I see the point of putting a display at the place along the road where they died. Even sadder is the fact that flowers wilt and highway trash piles up around the displays, making them just another sad reminder of life cut short.

December 5, 2023

Love Motives

I often tell my wife I love and adore her, mainly because I do and also because women like to hear the man in their life actually say the words. But during one conversation I had to confess that some times when I say it – especially when she is irked and giving me the deadly silent treatment – I am also reminding myself of that fact so I don’t start yelling and slamming doors. Is that so wrong?

Being Mortal

I am officially an old man. Sometimes I forget, then I look in the mirror and there it is. The truth is that life has its limits, and that is how it should be. There are new generations coming up, ready to step up and take our place. They are welcome to it. If you have reached old age, you have made some blunders in you life. If you think otherwise, then you are indeed a fool. You can warn the new generations about the mistakes you made, but they are oblivious. This too is as it should be. It’s their world, and it’s on them to screw it up for the generations to follow, just as we did for them.

Good Deeds

There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. It’s mostly – but not always – true. The problem with good deeds is that most people who do them expect to be appreciated. In actuality, good-deed recipients are more often resentful about it, rather than grateful. Nobody likes being the person who has to rely on the good will of others. So do good deeds for your own sake – because it makes you feel better, not because you want to be feel appreciated.

Recreational Bitching

Did you ever notice that some people – maybe more people than not – like to complain about everything? In the summertime, it’s too hot. In the wintertime it’s too cold. Health care is too expensive. Young people are too rude. Old people move too slowly. There ought to be a law against anything and everything that might make one unhappy. It’s recreational bitching, and we all do it to greater or lesser extent. Maybe once in a while, it might make sense to listen to how we talk and how we think. Most of us are just doing the best that we can.