Memorial Day

Ryan Opel, a Federation & Empire staff member, writes:

 

Memorial Day. 

 

A time to remember friends and comrades lost. Some lost in war. Some lost in peace. Some lost to old age. Some still alive but yet lost to us.

 

As I spend my third Memorial Day in the Iraqi Theater of Operations I remember all those brothers, sisters, friends, relatives that have answered their nation’s clarion call of service. From those early days in 1775 when a small group of British Colonies decided that they had had enough. Through the dark days of a Civil War that almost tore our young nation apart. Into the dark days of 1941 when we were forcefully thrust onto the world stage to stay. The dark days of the Cold War brought us even more to the forefront of the stage as millions of men and women from the United States went to serve around the world.

 

My own service began during this time and I trained for war as hard as I prayed for peace. For I knew, like my brothers in arms, who would pay the harshest cost if our efforts to maintain the peace failed. I lost friends and comrades during this time in accidents, both training and regular. I remember them and their families.

 

On September 11^th 2001, once again our nation’s clarion call to war was sounded and our nation’s citizen soldiers answered that call. From Ground Zero, to Arlington, to the skies over Pennsylvania, warriors answered the call. Within hours we had answered that call, knowing that much sacrifice would be needed from all of us.

 

On Memorial Day I will close my eyes and remember.

 

I will remember my Grandpa Arthur Fredrick Opel, USMCR, who died before I was old enough to realize what he’d done for country.

 

I will remember my Grandpa John Elmer Webster, Army of the United States, who died before I was old enough to truly talk to him about his service.

 

I will remember my roommate Todd Drobnick, who was killed while working as a civilian translator on Thanksgiving Day 2003 in Northern Iraq.

 

I will close my eyes and walk through the fields of Lexington Commons, Cowpens, Valley Forge, Yorktown, Fort McHenry, New Orleans, Vera Cruz, Manassas/Bull Run, Antietam/Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Nashville, Appomattox, Little Big Horn. I will walk in Santiago and Manila. 

 

I will walk along the Somme, the Meuse-Argonne. I will walk from the Philippines, to Burma, to Egypt and Libya, through Italy and France and on into Germany. I will set foot on the islands all across the Pacific and on into Japan.

 

I will walk up and down the Korean Peninsula from Pusan to the Yalu, across South Vietnam from Saigon to Khe Sanh.

 

I will travel again to Germany and visit places like Hohenfels, Augsburg, Nuremberg, and walk the Inter-German border.

 

I will patrol the Korean DMZ.

 

I will go to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. I will visit Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Along this trip I will be accompanied by those that have fallen. They wear Continental Blue, Confederate Gray, Union Blue, Khaki and Olive Drab, Woodland and Desert Camouflage, and the current combat uniforms. Those that walk beside me are the dead; they watch over the US soldier wherever he goes. Our lost comrades will never be forgotten, even if we don’t know their names or faces. The memory will be guarded and cherished as long we draw breath.