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A quote: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” ~~ Mark Twain
I’ll start with a story …
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I rap softly on the door, open, and poke my head in. My son looks up from his book.
“Booking confirmed.”
He nods.
The plane ride is long, airport crowded. But son’s high school French is coming in handy with the taxis drivers.
The sky is bright blue, the breeze off the ocean brisk and nothing but silence hangs over the rolling hills. Map in hand we find the spot, the one my own father brought me to when I was 17.
“Son, meet your great grandfather.”
He falls to his knees, tracing with his fingers “Died June 6, 1944”
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Now, it’s your turn. And later, please take a moment on Memorial Day to honor those who gave their last for us.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
Cameron says: I took another shot of whiskey as I sat at the grave site. There were a few people who gave us disapproving stares.
“Hey,” my buddy said. “Five bucks says that lady in white comes over here to chew us out.”
Before I could agree, she did just that. She glared down at us and at the bottle in my hand. “Do you have any idea how disrespectful that is?”
“We’re celebrating and not bothering you,” I answered.
“Who do you think you are?” she demanded.
My friend stood up and looked down at her. “Well, I’m the guy in that grave and I think it’s fine for him to get drunk with me.”
Lewis says: Good one, Cameron!
Lewis says: Lest we forget…. My grandpa’s birthday was June 6, and all his children got home safe and sound! My uncles and one of my aunties served in WWII, and my husband in Viet Nam.
Thanks, Darleen, very nice!
Cameron says: Thank you, Lewis. Couldn’t keep it at 100 but I’m sure folks are cool with that.
Dupin says: Many of the guys who stormed the beach with me on D-Day lie here. Not me. I live on.
I’ve survived the Charge of the Light Brigade, barely missed being guillotined during the French Revolution, fought for William in the Battle of Hastings, fought against Caesar and Alexander, for Xerxes and Hammurabi.
While I can be wounded, I cannot die, though the guillotine might’ve proved otherwise. Maybe I shouldn’t have fled. I’m the consummate mercenary, yet I remember all those I fought with and against.
I am cursed to live, to wander, and to remember.
You may call me Kane.
Cameron says: Nice. Reminds me of “He Never Died.”
Navig8r says: A quote.
” They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
For the Fallen By Laurence Binyon
There’s Uncle Robert. Dive bomber crash just before Pearl Harbor. He was Uncle Francis’ older brother. Uncle Francis is a lot older than me. Gut says Robert is too. Same for all that generation of headstones. Earlier wars, gut says even older.
The statues are nearly all generals. Yep. Older.
Exciting war movie. Gut says that 30 something guy acting like a teenager is out of character. Head says actor playing teenager.
The new Vietnam war memorial. My generation. Youthful statues. Gut slowly re-calibrating.
I’m a grandpa now. Gut sees youth under military headstones.
What if more guts re-calibrated earlier?
Reggie Waite was halfway down to Shepardsport’s dining commons to break the news of the Kitty Hawk massacre to the lunar settlement’s residents when he realized what today was. Seventy-four years ago today, his grandfather had hit the beach on yet another island somewhere in the South Pacific, and had vanished into history, missing in action. Reginald Phillips Waite had been one of a long line of Waites who’d served their country, going all the way back before there even was a United States, back when it was still Britain’s North American colonies fighting against the French and their Indian Allies.
And now Reggie was facing a new fight, different from what any of his ancestors had faced. Even his several-times-great grandfather who’d fought in the 53rd Massachusetts at Gettysburg was in a battle with clear sides who each claimed territory and sovereignty. But now he wasn’t sure how far up the rot went, only that he was looking at a situation no military officer ever wanted, in which his oath and his chain of command might well be in conflict.
corsair red says: Excellent story, Ms. Click.
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