Memorial Day Used to Be Just Another Day For Me

Today is Memorial Day, a day that we remember those that have bravely given their lives in service to their country. We can never repay their sacrifice and the loss that their families feel by the void left behind by a family member that will never be home again.

For some, Memorial Day is an excuse to get together as a family and have a cook out or spend a day at the beach. Its just another day off because they have never felt that loss of having to bury a loved one at such a young age when they should have had many years left ahead of them.

Growing Up With Memorial Day Traditions

When I was younger, my father and uncles would tell me of the brave men and women that had given everything but I don’t think I could ever truly appreciate their words until I experienced the loss of young life for myself.

I joined the military straight out of high school because I had grown up in Upstate New York and gone to high school with some of those lost during the devastation of 9/11 when the World Trade Center towers fell.

I remember how excited they had been to take a fancy job interning in the big city and how powerfully rocked our little town was by the loss of our young comrades. They had never served in the military, they were just young kids that had gone off to try to live their dreams.

So much has changed in the world since that day and many still commemorate that day all over the world because its not often with America is attacked on our own soil.

Joining the Navy

When I joined the Navy, I never really thought about the possibility of dying. I think when we are young adults we feel invincible and like whatever happens to other people could never happen to us. I was stationed onboard a destroyer in Norfolk, Virginia for years before an injury during an underway refueling took me off the ship.

While stationed there, we deployed to combat zones and dealt with unsavory people that I never thought could possibly exist in our modern world. But, they do exist and they are very real.

After I was partly recovered from the injury I was then stationed onboard an aircraft carrier where I mentored some young sailors before I was released from service because my injury couldn’t be fixed. While there, I had been approached by one young sailor about whether or not he should choose to stay in the military or get out and move back home to be with family.

I had encouraged him to stay Navy because his life before the military had been nothing but parties and drugs. I wanted so much more for him, the military had given him a purpose in life and goals to work towards. So, he made the decision to stay.

Last summer, I got word that the ship he was stationed on was in an accident and he was amongst the missing at that time. Later, it was found that he had died in the accident with a number of other sailors in their berthing and work spaces.

The area on the ship that faced the accident was where I had lived and worked for years myself so it was painful to think about how I knew the lay out of where my friend had lived, worked, and then died.

I hadn’t talked to him in a couple of years before the accident so I wasn’t sure what was going on his life except that he had met and married a wonderful young woman and had a passion for fixing cars then racing them whenever he could. He lived a life that seemed to make him happy.

None of us can change the losses that have come from keeping the nation safe but we can respect and honor them on days like today. And we can honor those that currently serve and are willing to make that ultimate sacrifice if called to do so. The division that we currently feel is not necessary, honestly. We should choose to love and value each other whenever possible.

Let’s choose to not fight on this day and instead choose to just love and remember those that are gone.

Thanks for reading,

Ivy

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