Memorial Day

Memorial Day...
is for Veterans, who sacrificed their lives for the country, not paid as civilians who do these things for pay and prestige and of free will or of foolishness and risk their lives. Memorial Day is for our fallen veterans. Please don't disrespect their only day with reverence to others, who are honored by their own. There's no equal to serving your country in the military.
I also want to speak for the untold who have died early in combat, without the longivity to obtain glorified credentials with awards such as Bronze Star, Silver Star, and the Navy Cross and others that are mentioned frequently. Heroism is happenstance, falling victim to the circumstances and the many are hard pressed to do the only thing left to do that others are unable to do. With no means to lessen their service, I lift up those who are not less, but without the scrambled eggs, and vain decorations. Many did not get their decorations until after they paid the dear price and that is why they are vain decorations, a cheap piece metal with a small peice of cloth which all would gladly trade to live again.
In the field soldiers are all one, share water, their last can of crackers and aid anyone they are serving next to. In the bush there are no glorified "Special Forces", Supermans, John Waynes or distinctions between soldiers, no rivalery, we are all on the front lines. We all bleed red and that fact when in combat weighs above all else that was learned stateside. The man next to you knows he can be deader than you in a instant no matter the name of his unit and without two legs that patch of insignia has little meaning. I have heared the words from those as they were loaded on a chopper and they would not please the ears of those who claim to be the staunchest patriots. But, they are the true patriots, not by word but by deeds.
I post my memorial for my high school friend, Roy Howard, who died on an evening mission two weeks incountry, as an E-3, without all the glory of decorations but not without hymns, as the angels brought him home. His decorations were awarded posthumous. Ironically I served in the same province a year later, Quang Nam.
I also post a memorial to Col. John A. Dowd, commander of 1st Battalion 7 Marines, 1st Marine Division who served in the bush with us, fought along side of us and shirked not his dutes as a Marine fighting soldier. He and his radio man at the time, myself, walked immediately behind the point man on operations which he did not have to do and many officers did not. He was a Marine's Marine and gave his life living as a soldier not as Quanset Hut commando of which he surely could have more often than not. Col Dowd is buried in Arlington National Cemetary.