A Memorial Day Post

My personal experiences with the military have always been a bit peripheral. Ever present, but not an integral part of my life.

I remember an uncle being a member of the National Guard and sometimes I'd see him bringing his uniform home and hanging it in the closet. I knew another uncle had served on a Navy ship, but I didn't know much more than that.

I remember going to church with people stationed at Fort Devens. Once a girl there laughed at me because I didn't know what the PX was. It wasn't fair! Her father was in the army, so she knew about things like that. My father was a science teacher. I asked her if she knew what H20 was. She was stumped. It didn't really make me feel better.

Friends from Fort Devens often went overseas. When I was 17, I visited some of them in Belgium and Germany.

Then later I married Roger. His brother was named after an uncle who had died in the Korean War. And I always make a point of listening to his father tell stories about serving during World War II as a radio operator on a B-29.

After 9/11, I'd often meet customers at our bookstore who had served or who were closely related to people on active duty. I especially remember a man who came in looking for a book his wife wanted him to get for a friend of hers. He couldn't remember the title, and I asked if he wanted to call his wife. He said he couldn't; she was in Afghanistan. I looked at the baby in his arms, thinking about how his mama was really far away and wouldn't be able to hold him for nearly a year.

A neighbor we'd watched grow up enlisted. One of our Merrell nephews enlisted. He was quoted once in a Washington Post article when he was on patrol in Baghdad.

Then I went back to teaching at UVU, and almost every semester I'd have students in my classes who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Or students who were thinking of enlisting. One of them wrote his research paper on whether the major US military actions in the last 30 years were justified. He desperately wanted them to be.

So grateful for everyone who has served. So hopeful that one day no one will ever have to serve in vain.