Happy Memorial Day

Thoughts

First off, I don’t want to come off as a boomer veteran that complains about folks having a day off. I mainly just want to get my thoughts down that pervaded the first half of my morning this memorial day.

I often hear every year people at work saying: “Happy Memorial Day!” as if memorial day is supposed to be a happy day.

From Wikipedia:

Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day[1]) is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials on Memorial Day to honor and mourn those who died while serving in the U.S. military. Many volunteers place American flags on the graves of military personnel in national cemeteries.

Strangely, this is not the same holiday for everyone. Some people still have to go to work, some don’t, and some say “Happy Memorial Day.” I think it’s because of how much older I’ve gotten after serving during wartime, and especially about how much I’ve heard of suicides and deaths from within my friends who served with me makes me feel a different type of way.

This year I met up with a friend from my Security division that told me that about 1/3 (around 20 people) of our section has either killed themselves, died, or gone missing in the past 10 years. He’s been meeting up with all of our shipmates all across the country and have only found 10% of them. Supposedly, this is a common phenomenon in the military.

I pray for the families of my friends.

War is where the rich pay 50% of the world to kill the other 50%.