What does Memorial Day mean to you?

I agree...although I scoff when someone thanks me for serving. ( I do hide it well...I am a Marine, and STILL practice my bearing. lol)

I lost family in both peacetime and wartime. I have cousins who died pre and Post-Vietnam, some died during training, and some died after their service.

I remember them...and honor their memory by being the best citizen I can be.

Like everyone else...I am grateful to those who served before and after me.

Memorial Day for me is a day for Remembering our fallen heroes through time. It is a day set aside to be thankful for those who paid with their lives during wartime, as well as though who passed years after their active service was completed. As member of the elite group of men and women who served their country and fellow man in military service, I am mindful of the respect to be given to our comrades in arms who have walked point on the final mission.
God Bless America! God Bless Fallen Veterans! God Bless Our Leaders who send the military in harms way to protect American Citizenry.
Semper Fidelis!
Sgt. Johnson

I will always think about the brave Currahees I had the privilege and honor of deploying with, but most specifically, of my fallen friends SPC Edwin W. Roodhouse, Baker Co 1/506TH, and my hometown brother-from-another-mother, Lcpl Chad B. Maynard of the 2nd Mar Div, who each died in our AO while on patrol; one to an AT Mine in December '04 Habbaniyah, and the other to direct confrontation in June '05 Ramadi Iraq, respectively.

I quite often (not just once a year) take the opportunity to tip one back for the homies and feel for the void that was left in their families upon their passing. It's one thing to feel the loss while in the combat zone, but an entirely different ball of wax when you come back home after it all, and meet the members of the fallen's family. Telling their stories and re-living the memories are akin to ripping off a set of one-day-old bandages previously stuck to the wound. Some stories just can't be told with much detail. It's enough to make you broil on the inside while doing the best you can to maintain decorum and military bearing; strength for the families.

Selflessness, Sacrifice, and Freedom !!!

A time to remember lost friends.

Regardless if it is in the blue oceans, jungles, desert, Africa, Europe, or here in America, those who sacrified the most went to see their maker.

I remember all my friends that gave their lives in Viet Nam, don't want to dwell on it but remember and honor them.
Viet Nam 66-69

Although I work both sunday and monday this weekend. I went to Buchanan High and I'll have all of our fallen in my thoughts and the men I served with that didn't come home. God Bless the Gun Slingers and RIP brothers.

As a youth I used to listen to a 78 record "Old Soldiers Never Die - They Just Fade Away" which says it all to me. As a volunteer EMT we often went to the reservoir on Memorial Day to respond to individuals who have consumed too much or the person who had a stroke as many families barbequed, played volleyball, swam, etc. All these folks enjoyed their day due to the many who had paid the ultimate sacrifice and/or faded away. I will support my granddaughters HS Marching Band on Monday and listen as they play at the cemetery in honor of those who served after marching in the parade, knowing that most do not know what sacrifices our WWI soldiers made in their quest to retain freedom, or those fading away after their sacrifices in WWII. When I return home, I will do what I always do, open a couple of beers placing one on the railing for those who are not with us. At the end of the day as usual, I will pore that beer on the turf, knowing that one day I will consume many with those who have gone before keeping in mind that old soldiers never die, they just fade away knowing that those after them will be free. Semper Fi!

A day to remember those that paid the ultimate sacrifice. To them all I say is "Thank you".