Memorial Day is a secular holiday that was created to honor and pay our respect for fallen soldiers. It is a day to visit the gravesites of loved ones and ancestors and place flowers by their headstones. Flags are flown at half-staff until noon and small flags are placed by the graves.
Many people take advantage of a three-day weekend and travel to beaches, lakes or up to the mountains with their families. Parades, barbecues and picnics are traditional as well. Memorial Day is considered the unofficial start of summer.
Memorial Day was first known as Decoration Day. Both the North and South had been putting flowers on the graves of loved ones who perished in the American Civil War. The casualties of this war were high, 498,332 lives. On May 5, 1868 General John Logan, Commander-in-Chief of Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order No. 11, which officially proclaimed Decoration Day. It was first observed on May 30, 1868. However, the South decided to honor their dead on a different day up until World War I. In 1882 the named was changed to Memorial Day and in 1971 the day was declared a national holiday.
I watched the flag pass by one day,
it fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I look at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud;
With hair cut square and eyes alert,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I wondered how many men like him
Had fallen through the years,
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mother's tears?
How many pilot's planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldier's graves?
No, freedom isn't free.
I heard the sound of taps one night
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play,
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times,
Taps had meant "amen".
When a flag had covered a coffin,
Of a brother, or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons, and husbands
With interrupted lives.
And I thought about a graveyard,
At the bottom of the sea,
Of unmarked graves in Arlington,
No freedom isn't free.
by:
KELLY STRONG
Commander,
U. S. Coast Guard
In Memory of 9/11/2001 Slide Show
LarryPoss.com,
All Rights and Materials Reserved.
