For the majority of my life (30-ish years), Memorial Day has been, for the most part, a day off of school or work. I never really gave it much thought beyond that. I have been in the US Air Force now for approaching 5 years, and it was still just a day on the calendar (federal holdiay,barbeques, etc…) and t hat was all. Now, I have been in Iraq for a little over 2 weeks, and it hastaken on a whole new meaning. I never really considered myself one of the troops, as in “support the troops.” Yesterday, I received my first care package, not from my parents, or friends, but from a little girl in the sunday school class at my parents church. AS an atheist, my first reaction was to be annoyed that my parents gave the chuch my address, but then I read the note from the little girl, and was pretty overwhelmed by the completely selfless sentiment. No political motives, no silly yellow ribbon bumper stickers, just a little girl reaching out to mke life a little better for someone she doesnt even know. This is the difference between supporting the war and supporting the troops who are over here. I would probably agree to a certain extent with most of the folks here who are anti-Iraq, but will bend over backwards to support my young, and not-so-young, troops, be they soldiers, airmen, sailors, or marines, who give up arge portions of normal life to do what they are asked to do. I don’t want to get political here, so I’ll leave that at that…(I apologize if this is the wrong forum for this…)
In a few minutes, I am headed to the second memorial service since I’ve been over here for a troop killed in senseless violence (IED)…the first one, last week, was one of the most sobering experiences of my life, and I will never hear “Taps” the same way again, as long as I live. Do I have a poit here? not really, just the random thoughts that are rolling around in my head on my first memorial day in Iraq…
Jack
