Dear Friend,

Today, for the first time in twenty years, Americans are commemorating Memorial Day during peacetime and in the shadow of the two longest wars in U.S. history. Over that long period, it could be easy to grow numb to the sacrifice made by those who served and died in all of the wars America has fought in. With our longest wars now behind us, we should recommit to honoring the fallen and never forgetting their sacrifice.

It’s hard to remember now how different the world was – and how different we were – before 9/11. I was a senior in high school when the twin towers fell. As someone interested in history, even at that young age, I immediately understood the implications but most of my young peers did not. 

That afternoon, at football practice, a friend of mine wondered aloud: “What do y’all think is going to happen now?” I quickly answered: “We were just attacked on American soil. We are going to war!” The other players laughed at that notion and resumed the game.

Today, most young people have grown up accustomed to America being involved in seemingly endless wars. But you have to remember that, in 2001, nobody my age had ever seen America at war, or even thought about the possibility of war in our lifetime. We had grown up thinking wars were things we read about in the history books, not things that might actually affect us.

Several of my friends are now among the fallen who sacrificed their very lives in service to our country, and it was the honor of my life to have served with them.  I have visited with their wives, children, siblings, parents, and friends, and remembered the lives they led. I have seen the gaping holes they left behind in their communities. I’ve seen the sorrow felt by their family members along with their simultaneous pride in the honor and courage of their lost loved ones.

All of this taught me that honoring the fallen is more than just a platitude. Those who we are honoring are not just names on a wall. They are not an abstraction. They were real people, with their own hopes and dreams and plans for the future. Many of them dropped those plans to answer the call and never got the chance to come home and pick them back up. Memorial Day gives us the opportunity to pause, to think about their sacrifice, and to honor and remember them for as long as our great nation endures.