Memorial Day article forwarded from Whiz Broome, RHS '65

Ro-Hawks, 

Whiz asked Gloria to post this article to the Ro-Hawk blog for Memorial Day.  The article is by Terry Garlock for whom a short bio is at http://www.garlock1.com/about_the_author.html 

Most of us know that Whizzy, RHS '65, served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot.  Afterward, he left the Army for seminary, then came back on active duty as a chaplain until his retirement.  He was assigned to the DC area when terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon, and he rushed to provide assistance to those surviving the attack.  Gloria posted an article about Whizzy's service on this blog ten years ago - http://ro-hawks.blogspot.com/2006/03/whizzy-broome-65_114313734200409733.html

Whiz has provided us with a strongly worded reminder that this is a day for remembering those who died in the service of our country.  

Jerry Ball, RHS '65

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends, a fellow Chopper Pilot sent this to me and it really touched me and made me think about what this sacred holiday, Memorial Day, is really all about. This day never goes by without some tears and deep heart ache for lost friends and our brave military from every war and conflict. Take some time to reflect and pray for our troops in "Harm's Way" now and the families with deep empty spots in their hearts today. God bless you all, Whiz

Americans and their Memorial Day weekend

by Terry Garlock

If future historians have any brains, and I confess to having doubts, they might look back on this period in America as a stark example of how breathtakingly stupid a people can become when they are safe and comfortable. Those are my thoughts as, once again, I find myself disgusted in the run-up to Memorial Day.

If you polled the veterans our country once sent to war, you would find a great many of them feel an urge to slap the merchants using Memorial Day to advertise a big sale on mattresses, cars or other merchandise, as if Memorial Day is for selling leftover inventory. It doesn’t say much for the masses rushing to the sales, either.

I don’t really mind that Memorial Day weekend marks opening the pool for the summer, a picnic or BBQ or first visit to the lake in the boat. But every one of us should be setting aside a good portion of Memorial Day Monday to reflect on the families whose son – or daughter – came home in a flag-draped box.

While I am writing this just before Memorial Day and you are reading it after, I do know that many of you taking the trouble to read this will be attending a ceremony honoring those who lost their life doing their duty. But your numbers are being overwhelmed by the dummies who don’t give it even a passing thought.

What bothers me most, I suppose, is that so many Americans just don’t know. They are so self-absorbed, so disconnected from our military, so wrapped up in their iPhone and Facebook and the new American pastime of entitlement and victimhood, that they don’t realize what other Americans have sacrificed. Are sacrificing right now, today. For them.

It doesn’t help that the yo-yos occupying the White House have turned our military into a lab for social experiments, or that the bootlickers with stars on their shoulders in the Pentagon go along with the girly-men policies pulling teeth out of our Armed Forces as they implement with an iron fist the yo-yos’ new military priority of sensitivity. It doesn’t help that the yo-yos, whether Republican or Democrat, get us involved in wars we should avoid, and then for public relations purposes withhold the overwhelming force required to win.

Just like long ago in Vietnam, amidst all the political stupidity that turns a winnable war into a meat-grinder that eats America’s young, our troops do their job well in combat, and sometimes come home in flag-draped coffins while the politicians and big-shots in the Pentagon keep their backsides covered, and while most Americans ignore them.

The lousy support of our troops fighting a war on our behalf first began when Gen. George Washington begged Congress for muskets, powder, ball, clothes, food and money to pay the men and received no response. But our leader’s betrayal of the trust owed to our troops does not mitigate one iota the bottomless pain of families who lost someone they deeply loved.

When my daughter Melanie was 13 some years ago, she and I were on a road trip passing near Washington, DC. I had told her we could stop for a little while, and I asked her to select two places she wanted to see since this would be her first visit. As we drove she told me she wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. Excellent choices, and they are conveniently close together.

As we drove, I wanted to explain the power of the Vietnam Memorial. I told her there are over 58,000 names etched in The Wall, but the story gets lost in numbers because every name represents a family’s broken heart.

I asked her, “When a mother and father are informed their son has been killed in a war, that may be the worst day of their life. How long do you think it takes for them to get over it?” After a moment’s thought Melanie said, “Never.”

Exactly right. Somewhere amidst the grief they find the strength to do the same thing that our troops do in combat when bad things happen - they push it down into a secret box deep inside them and close the lid tight so they can go on with life and do what they must do. But for the rest of their life, those painful memories are waiting to spring into action when the lid to their secret box is opened.

One of the guys in our coffee group at Mimi’s had a rough combat experience, but later back in the US he had casualty notification duty. I’m leaving out his name for his own