Memorial Day 2021: Honoring Those Who Gave Their Last Full Measure

“Here Rests In Honored Glory AN AMERICAN SOLDIER Known But To God.”

Once you have visited Arlington National Cemetery, once you have stood before the Tomb Of The Unknown, your perspective of this country changes — at least it should.

The Tomb Of The Unknown has been the heartbeat of Arlington for 100 years — this is the centennial year.  It was in 1921 that the remains of an unknown soldier, killed in World War I, were interred and the monument unveiled.  Since then unknowns from World War II and Korea are also interred alongside the World War I soldier.

A civilian guard was first posted at the Tomb on November 17, 1925.  A military guard was first posted on March 25, 1926. The first 24-hour guard was posted on midnight, July 2, 1937. The Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded continuously, 24 hours a day, seven  days a week.  Hurricanes, terrorist attacks, nothing has stopped the Honor Guard from its sacred duty.

Although The Tomb is the focal point at Arlington, there is also the Civil War Unknown monument where 2,211 unknown Union and Confederate soldiers lie, together.

On this Memorial Day, it is not a day of celebration.  It is not a day of parties and picnics although it has come to that, often.  It is and should always be a day of solemn remembrance and observation.  It is the day we honor all of our military men and women who have given “Their last full measure of devotion” to our country so that we can live and enjoy the freedoms that only this country affords.

There are Tombs of the Unknowns all over the world, in different countries.  Even within our country there are other Tombs Of Unknowns — such as the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier in Philadelphia.

More than One Million American men and women have died in wars protecting the freedoms we hold so dear.

They died on battlefields all over the world.

As a youngster, I remember vividly my first Navy football game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.  It was there that I read silently, the names lining the two sides of the stadium:  Southern France, Anzio, Belleau Wood, Chateau Thierry, Pearl Harbor, Java Sea, Wake, Coral Sea, Midway, Savo Island, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz Islands, Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Bougainville, Rabaul, Cape Gloucester, Hollandia.  Later, after we left Annapolis — Market Time, Quang Nam, Quang Tin and Quang Ngai were added.

My father, who sat beside me at those Navy games, was in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and over the years I’d read many books about that battle.

Growing up in a military family planted the seeds of what Memorial Day is all about.

It is about those we lost, those who paid the ultimate price, those who never came home — those who gave up their futures so that we might have ours.

But it is The Tomb at Arlington that connects us with the legacy of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Today we honor and remember.

Sadly, our country has seen division — red states, blue states.

But today, if only for a day, let us mix red and blue and yield to Violet — a color you see when you mix the two.

Let us join together and give thanks for those who gave Their Last Full Measure Of Devotion.

We owe it to them.

We owe them so very much — every day.