Memorial Day started in the South to commemorate the many brave people who fought and died in the Civil War. In time, it became the day to celebrate all of the brave men and women who have fought the many wars since America’s independence. It’s celebrated on the last Monday in May every year.
In my lifetime America has fought wars in Europe, the Pacific, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Grenada, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and now is still fighting wars in the Middle East. World War II took four years out of my life when I was between 18 and 22 years of age. In my case I can honestly say that enlisting in the Navy was one of the best things I ever did in my life. I learned something every single day I had a uniform on, not to mention I’d be a truly undisciplined mess if I hadn’t had the experience.
I was very lucky that I never got shot at, but I was on one sub-chaser that broke up in a typhoon and was sunk out from under us in heavy seas that the captain estimated to be to be over 50 feet high. Everybody on board survived, which was amazing.
On Memorial Day this year, once again tens of thousands of white crosses will have flowers placed at their base in honor of all the fallen heroes.
Along with those flowers at the base of those white crosses, in countless towns across America, there will be parades of veterans, soldiers, sailors and Marines marching down Main Street in a parade.. They will be displaying their well-earned campaign bars with a rifle over their shoulder. They deserve more applause than they ever get from the watching crowd.
Before I enlisted in the Navy, Memorial Day was the first three-day weekend of the year when I could ride my homemade redwood surfboard for three days in a row without ditching school.
In the 1950s when I started producing ski movies I very quickly became aware of which resorts would be operating over the Memorial Day weekend. Mammoth Mountain, of course, was always at the top of the list for getting a substantial amount of footage on good snow with good skiers showing off what they had learned since the year before. The other two good locations for filming were Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon and the deep snows of Mount Baker.
Living here on an island in the Pacific Northwest almost 30 miles from the Whidbey Island Naval Base, it is so quiet here that when the Navy fighter planes push the throttle forward and take off we can hear them from that far away. It’s with a sense of pride and security every time I hear them.
Did you know that America today has in its arsenal airplanes that can travel 1,500 mph, which is considerably faster than the airplanes that flew over our sub-chaser that was stationed at Guadalcanal in 1944.
When are the men and women of the world going to get smart and realize that it’s virtually impossible and absolutely stupid to think that anyone can acquire someone else’s real estate with bullets and bombs?
If you own one or more American flags, you should display them proudly on the last Monday in May. If you have children, Memorial Day is one of the best holidays of the year for you to teach your children lessons of pride of being an American.
Set some time aside and pay tribute to all the men and women who have spent a portion or all of their lives defending our Constitution and our freedom to live and work wherever we choose.