A Memorial Day memorial

The three-day weekend! It’s as American as baseball, cookouts, swimming pools and the blood of an unknown warrior spilled in defense of ideas and convictions. From an old bridge in New England to the bullet-riddled streets of Baghdad Americans have fought and died for the cause of liberty and independence. This is their day, not ours.

When our Founding Fathers birthed a nation with the immortal words of our glorious Declaration of Independence we began a struggle to preserve liberty in a world hostile to the very concept. Yet to that end our forefathers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. Some ideas are simply greater than personal well-being.

Our Founders took an army of farmers and merchants to war against what was then the mightiest military on the face of the Earth. By God’s Hand they won! But it wasn’t cheap. More than 4400 perished to make reality the Declaration’s immortal words.

From those days forward our history is rich with heroism and self-sacrifice. Our ancestors have fought valiantly in defense of our nation’s freedom and sovereignty. They have served from the War of 1812 through the westward expansion, including a bloody disagreement that is inexplicably labeled the Civil War.

Americans charged up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. They filled the trenches of World War I to thwart Kaiser Wilhelm’s imperialism. They answered the call by the millions when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and they rid Europe of an indescribably brutal Nazi regime.

American troops braved the harsh combat and the bitter extremes of the Korean peninsula to prevent the spread of communism. In the steamy jungles of Vietnam they fought an often unseen and unidentifiable enemy for the same cause. They received little gratitude, neither the dead nor the survivors. Instead of a hero’s welcome they were mocked, cursed and spat upon. Shameful.

Since Vietnam our family and friends in uniform have routinely confronted hostility from the Iran Hostage Crisis and Beirut to Grenada and Panama. They expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, Milosevic from Bosnia and the Taliban from Afghanistan. Finally, they deposed Hussein entirely and quelled an al-Qaeda insurgency.

It’s been said, “All gave some, some gave all.” We’ll reserve Veteran’s Day to honor everyone who has served. But on Memorial Day it is the “some gave all”, along with wartime survivors who have since died, that we should honor.

Can you spare a minute to remember their service and sacrifice? Can you take a moment to remember the hundreds of thousands of Americans who left for battle and never returned? Can you pause to remember your American brethren whose bodies are entombed in sunken warships, dismembered in mangled aircraft, buried in unknown graves, or lost forever on obscure battlefields?

More than 4,400 Americans died in the Revolution and 2,260 in the War of 1812. The Mexican War claimed 13,283 lives, the misnamed Civil War 364,511, and the Spanish-American War 2,446.

America lost 521,915 sons and daughters in World War I (116,516) and World War II (405,399). Korea claimed 36,574 and 58,209 perished in Vietnam. Nearly 6000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have died since militant Muslims launched their current campaign against the West with the 1979 invasion of the US embassy in Tehran.

On this day, Memorial Day, you can certainly spare a moment to remember those whose blood made your festivities possible. And if it’s not too much of a burden, will you make a commitment to reignite liberty in the United States of America so that the blood of our countrymen and ancestors will not have spilled in vain?

It seems the least we can do.

Links to state-by-state casualty lists from each war. Does anyone from your state bear your family name?
US Army/Air Corps casualties World War II
US Navy/Marine/Coast Guard casualties World War II
Korean War Casualties by state and last name
Vietnam War Casualties by state and last name
Iraq War casualties: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Afghanistan War Casualties: Operation Enduring Freedom