No matter how many times I watch a 21-gun salute, the first stark volley of shots always takes me a bit by surprise.
That was true again on Monday at the Memorial Day observance at Claquato Cemetery, where I stood with my wife and our three kids under a solemn sky.
It’s become a holiday tradition for our family, thanks to the strong, quiet example from my wife’s late father. He would always bring his three daughters down Newaukum Hill to this pioneer cemetery. Those visits made an impression on the girls, and I hope our family’s regular visits do the same for the next generation.
Back then, Sarah tells me, the crowds were much larger than those today.
That’s a shame. It’s important to remember the sacrifices of those who rose to their country’s call and did what was asked of them, taking part in battles that their nation deemed worth fighting. The men and women who gave their lives deserve to be remembered and mourned. It’s a small duty that comes with being a citizen of the nation for which they fought.
Chris Brewer, a friend of mine who served in the Air Force in Iraq, made a valuable observation on this Memorial Day. He said that normally he reminds people that this day should be set aside for those who died in combat. There is another day to honor and thank living veterans — Nov. 11. Let Memorial Day be for those who fell in battle.
But this year, Brewer said, he felt the need to also honor those who survived their wars but came back irreparably changed. So many fighting men and women lost a part of themselves in combat. Whether physically, mentally or spiritually, part of them died on the field of battle.
With his permission, I’ll quote a bit from Brewer’s Facebook post:
“We have so many people that go off to war and come back so different than the people they used to be ... in essence, the life they knew as a normal human being is gone.”
He suggested that Memorial Day should also honor “people who are still with us but have experienced the death of peace, normalcy and joy due to a wartime experience.”
That might be an idea whose time has come.
The featured speaker at Monday’s event, the Rev. Jeff Hawkins, touched on the same theme. Describing his duty as a medical corpsman during the first Gulf War, Hawkins said he saw three deaths during his years in the Navy. Only one was related to combat — an airplane that came in too low, slamming into the flight deck. The other two deaths he experienced were suicides, he told a somber crowd at this pioneer cemetery. Those suicides continue, with America losing combat veterans every day due to emotional scars from their time in war.
“There are many discharged veterans who never left those battles, who are still losing those battles, who are still dying,” he said.
In a fine story in Tuesday’s edition, Chronicle reporter Justyna Tomtas has more on Hawkins and his reminder that all Americans have a wartime duty to remain beside the dying and injured on the “battlefield of life.”
I told my children that their respectful presence at these ceremonies is a gift of sorts to the veterans and their families. Some of those standing around us lost friends and loved ones in battle, or in the years after. Some of the wars in which they fought were not popular, but we as Americans have an obligation to remember and mourn the people who lost their lives or a crucial part of themselves. Except for the pain of losing a loved one, I can imagine few things more devastating than to think that loss is forgotten or taken lightly.
Attending a memorial once a year is certainly the least we can do to stand with our comrades in arms on the battlefields of yesteryear and today.
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Brian Mittge lives with his family live south of Chehalis. He thinks that when the time comes, Claquato would be a fine place for his long rest. Email him at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
