Reflections

I was in DC with my nephew Mike over the Memorial Day Weekend. We visited nearly every monument around of any significance. The whole visit was significant by itself since Mike enters the Army on Tuesday. He's going into MP training, and I suspect he will be sent to Iraq. In visiting the memorials and knowing that Mike will be leaving soon, I sat back and reflected on what I saw.

The war memorials, regardless of their age, express the sensibility of the war they represent. WWII is grand and majestic as befits a nation that saw itself as the triumphant defender of freedom. Korea's soldiers look tired and worn from a difficult war. They are from many countries, trudging up the hill, on the job, but there is no grandeur here. Vietnam's long wall invites introspection and contemplation. Have you ever seen a beefy, tattoed, do-rag wearing Hog-rider on his knees? Ever? Or in tears, held up by a friend? Rolling Thunder was in town and there are many Vietnam vets in their ranks, all were paying their respects to fallen comrades. The women were remembered too. The Nurses Memorial was awash in flowers from grateful survivors and families.

If there was a discordant note, it came from the many students who have no sense of history and no comprehension of the ultimate sacrifice made by the men whose names grace the wall. Mike was dismayed by that. Not all of his generation and those slightly younger, 'get' it very well it seems. Mike 'gets' it.

I just hope that at the end of his tour he is alive and in one piece, on many levels.