MEMORIAL DAY - A TIME TO REMEMBER

I know today is the day we are suppose to remember our friends and family members who died in war, whatever war it was.  I watched a show on TV last night from Washington about Memorial Day.  It was so depressing, I cried the whole time.  My husband was in the Army at Ft. Hood when Colin Powell was the Commander there.  He has a lot of great stories about Ft. Hood and the snakes in Texas.  He has a friend who only has half a head left from the injuries he received in Viet Nam.  We lost about 25 of our classmates in Viet Nam.  Some of those guys I went to grade school and high school with.

My dad was in the Navy during WWII, my step dad was in the Army during WWII ( he showed up later).  My mother played on a professional ladies baseball team during that war.  I was named for a professional lady baseball player who was a friend of my mom's.  The only time I have ever had a bat in my hand, I accidentally let it go and it hit the catcher in the mouth and knocked out her two front teeth.  I was never allowed to go near baseball equipment after that.

I worked for a major pharmaceutical company in the mid-west and I was responsible for all the Atropine syringes that went to Desert Storm to counter attack Agent Orange during the Gulf War.  A lot of our guys from work who had just gotten out of college and were National Guard members had to go to the gulf and I wanted to make sure they all had their syringes.  Those syringes were the top priority for almost two years.  The stress of that project put everyone into craze mode.  Sometimes we had to cover two jobs to make up for the guys that were gone.  We all wore yellow ribbons and decorated our offices and the cafeteria with yellow ribbons.  We all sang Tony Orlando's song "Tie A Yellow Ribbon".   We lost a couple good guys.

I was sitting in my office on 9-11-2001 when my husband called and said "you won't believe what just happened".  We all ran to a conference room to turn on the TV.  No one could talk.  I don't ever remember being that scared.  I left early and drove home in shock.  Life as it was once known, changed forever.

As I was watching that Memorial Day program last night, I was asking myself if there was something more I need to be doing for the vets coming back who have been injured, is there something I can do to help their families, is there a place I can go to volunteer to help?  I used to knit wool scarves for the guys but I'm so allergic to the wool, I would get a migraine every time I picked it up.  I decided, I'm going to start making scarves and afghans and take them down to Luke Air Force Base.  I'm sure they will be able to find someone that needs them.

I had a thought too.  I've seen thrift stores that help support animal shelters, homeless women and children, sending poor girls to college, to support church activities.  Have you ever seen a thrift store that supports the vets and families of veterans?  Let me know if you know of one so I can support them somehow, someway.

A lot of you that read my blog are too young to remember all these wars and the guys that never made it home.  Now it's not just guys it's women too.  I never thought I would see the day that a woman died in combat.  I don't think when I was in my 20's or 30's that I would of had the nerve to do the things young women do now.  I was never given the opportunity either but I still don't think I'm that kind of brave woman.

I know one thing for sure, my husband puts the American Flag out every day and if he forgets, I do it.

How about it people, let's get those flags out to remind us of how great things are in America, to remind us of the men and women who lost their lives defending our country and letting the world know what we stand for and what we won't stand for.