"All Gave Some, Some Gave All"

     “As the beautiful poem states by Lawrence Binyon; “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”
     This Memorial Day let us pray and remember those who did not return from war.  Those who left this soil to serve their country in war time.
     Every Memorial Day there are several programs on the television that depict soldiers in war time.  Every year they show one moment in time, and they use that specific shot in several different films, and it shows the storming of the beaches on June 6th, 1944.  In that slide one young soldier is just coming off from the landing barge and running through the water and then just reaching dry land, the beach, and falls from enemy fire. To me that depicts the sacrifice of so many who were called by their country and freely gave of themselves, and in this case their very lives for their country and the freedom for all Americans to live free. 
     That young sldier had dreams, they all wanted to go home to their families, to live the American dream, and yet died young, forever young.  On this Memorial Day let us think of that one soldier, representing all who did not come home, the true price of freedom that we all enjoy.
     I still wear a POW bracelet and have for many  decades now of Major Michael Davis O’Donnell who lost his life attempting to rescue fellow soldiers in Laos.  His remains were repatriated about 10 years ago, but I will continue to wear it in honor of all who fell in the Vietnam War, and those still unaccounted for.
     This is a poem that Michael wrote from Vietnam just a couple of months before he was lost:
 
“If you are able save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are    leaving for the places they can no longer go.  Be not ashamed to say that you loved them, though you may or may not have     always.  Take what they left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.  And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left    behind.”