Hacksaw: Remembering Those Who Served on Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day weekend. Picnics, family, Padres games, the Indy 500, the Lakers in the playoffs, the Stanley Cup finals. Lots to see, experience and think about.
Memorial Day weekend, a time to remember also. We see hometown heroes amongst us. The Padres icon broadcaster Jerry Coleman flew fighters, even landed upside down on a flight deck. Red Sox hero Ted Williams was a fighter pilot both in the Pacific and in Korea, survived two crashes, and came home to super stardom.
The are two Purple Hearts in my house. Family members who served in our World Wars, were wounded, killed, and whose lives were forever changed.
When you come from an extended large family of that era, you are influenced by their experiences. Influenced by those you know, those you loved, those you lost.
I’ve been to Arlington, to the Punch Bowl cemetery in Hawaii, to Rosecrans Cemetery here, and know full well about the US cemetery at Normandy.
I wept when I went to the black granite Vietnam Wall in Washington, and was moved by the D-Day Memorial in Virginia. If you go to the Balboa Naval Hospital you are impacted. When you know them, when you cared about them, when you see them, when you ache for them and their memories, it leaves a lasting impression. (more…)
