What Memorial Day Means to Me
It is not the start of summer or a day to honor all veterans.
I know I haven’t posted in quite a while, I thought that I could reduce my posts to once every two weeks but even that has been impossible with my baseball coaching duties as well as watching my son play this spring. I also have been dealing with a torn meniscus in my right knee, and while it doesn’t sound too bad, the daily grind of limping around and constant pain is taking quite the toll on me. Hopefully I will get it taken care of soon and be back to normal. Baseball is nearly over and I should be back to my regular schedule before long. Until then please read this post from last Memorial Day.
Chris
I’m coming to you today with a special episode of “The Musing of a Normal Midwestern Guy” to speak about a holiday that has lost it’s original meaning (not that every holiday in America hasn’t lost its meaning). That holiday is Memorial Day, in modern America, Memorial Day is the start of summer, a day of picnics, parties, the Indy 500 and other fun outdoor activities. If there is a recognition of the solemnity of the day, it is usually miscast as a celebration of all who served in the military. While a noble sentiment, there is already two days to honor our fellow Americans who have served their country, Armed Forces Day (the third Saturday of May) and Veterans Day (November 11). Memorial Day is, and should always be, reserved for an even more revered group of Americans, those that gave their lives for this country.
Even the traditions of Memorial Day set it apart from every other patriotic holiday. The graves of fallen soldiers should be decorated with flowers or flags and the Stars and Stripes should be flown at half-mast. However, the flag is not left at half-mast all day. The flag is flown at half-mast until noon to honor our fallen heroes and raised to full-mast by those left behind, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all. This holiday, above all others, should inspire awe, reverence and thanks, from all Americans to all those it honors; the honored war dead.
As I’m wont to do, I will start with a little historical background of the holiday. The first known mention of a day to mark the sacrifice of Fallen Soldiers was in a letter printed in the Columbus Sun and Times (Columbus Georgia) on March 10, 1866. The letter was titled “The Southern Dead” and was submitted by “Southern Women”. It was in fact written by Mary Ann Williams, the wife of Confederate officer Charles Williams. It reads in part:
“The Ladies are now and have been for several days engaged in the sad but pleasant duty of ornamenting and improving that portion of the city cemetery sacred to the memory of our gallant Confederate dead, but we feel it an unfinished work unless a day be set apart annually for its special attention. We cannot raise monumental shafts and inscribe thereon their many deeds of heroism, but we can keep alive the memory of the debt we owe them, by at least dedicating one day in each year to embellishing their humble graves with flowers. therefore we beg the assistance of the Press and the Ladies throughout the South in our efforts to set apart a certain day to be observed and handed down through time as a religious custom of the country to wreath the graves of our martyred dead with flowers.”
This letter was reprinted in newspapers all over the South and days of remembrance began to be observed in cities and towns across what had been the Confederacy. As the practice grew it started to be picked up by newspapers in the North and the idea gained traction, even though it had began as a way to honor the southern dead. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR, an organization of and for Civil War veterans) issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide. With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states two years earlier. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. In 1869, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, with 336 events in 1870. One author claims that the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle, but according to the White House in 2010, the date was chosen as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North. In 1871, Michigan (my home state) made Decoration Day an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit. There was still animosity between the North and the South and each area had their own holidays on different days and there was no mention of the other side on those days. By the 20th century, various Union and Confederate memorial traditions, celebrated on different days, merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in military service. Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians, and ministers to commemorate the Civil War and, at first, to rehash the "atrocities" of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. People of all religious beliefs joined and the point was often made that German and Irish soldiers, ethnic minorities who had faced discrimination in the United States, had become true Americans in a "baptism of blood" on the battlefield. In 1913 Washington DC was host to a four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion". It featured large numbers of both Union and Confederate soldiers shaking hands and recognizing their shared sacrifice. As well as parades, re-enactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson, the first Southerner elected to the White House since the Civil War (he was a horrible president and an even worse person, but that is something for another time). James Heflin, a Senator from Alabama, gave the main address. Heflin, who was a noted orator, was a controversial choice as Memorial Day speaker because of his support of segregation; however, his speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and goodwill, gaining him praise from newspapers. However, it seems that the holiday quickly started to lose the reverence intended for the occasion. In 1911 the scheduling of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway car race (later named the Indianapolis 500) was vehemently opposed by the increasingly elderly members of the GAR and as early as 1913 one Indiana veteran complained that younger people born since the war ended, had a "tendency to forget the purpose of Memorial Day and make it a day for games, races, and revelry, instead of a day of memory and tears”. In 1923 Indiana’s state of legislature rejected holding the Indy 500 on Memorial Day. However, the newly formed American Legion and local officials and businesses wanted the big race, (and the money it generated), to continue, and they were able to convince Governor Warren McCray to veto the bill and the race has been held Memorial Day weekend ever since. The date of the holiday has moved around over the years, in the Southern Dead letter it was recommended the second Wednesday in May and throughout the country it has been observed from early May to early June. Over time May 30 was standardized as the official date for the observance. Of course that wasn’t good enough for the members of Congress, who on June 28, 1968, passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved three holidays, including Memorial Day, (as well as Washington’s birthday and Columbus Day) from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend.
Now that I have established the history of the holiday, I can get back to the real reason for this post. Why this holiday keeps its original meaning for me and always will.
As you all know, (or might not if you’re a new subscriber) I proudly served in the United States Marine Corps from May 30, 1989, to May 30, 1993. In that time I travelled the world on Uncle Sam’s dime and visited many interesting places, among them were Somalia and Kuwait. It is my time in Kuwait that drives the point home for me as to the real meaning and purpose of this holiday.
During the Gulf War, I was a Field Radio Operator with 3rd Battalion 7th Marine Regiment (part of the 1st Marine Division). In the Marine Corps structure of the time, the Battalion was made up of three infantry companies (for 3/7 it was India, Kilo and Lima) and Headquarters & Service (H&S) Company. The radio operators, were in the Communication Platoon of H&S Company (along with the Headquarters Platoon, Service Platoon, Transport Platoon, Medical Platoon and oddly enough, the Situation and Target Acquisition Platoon, otherwise known as the snipers). You lived, ate, worked and played with Marines from your platoon and had a pretty good level of friendship with the other Marines in your company, and although there was not a whole lot of fraternization between Marines from the different companies everyone knew a few guys in the other companies. Two Marines that fit both of those categories for me were Christian Porter and Brian Lane. Porter was a 20 year old from Chicago who was in the Transport Platoon. I remember him as a funny kid (he was only 20, while I was a seasoned 22), he like rap music, baseball and was going to start a record label after the Marines. The other thing about Chris (yes, it was a little confusing when we were together, although he was call Dark Green Chris and I was Light Green Chris. The was how the Marines dealt with race, there were no black or white Marines, only dark green and light green Marines) was his devotion to his faith, he was much more religious than most Marines. He also loved to sing gospel songs. If I ran into him at the Enlisted Club, he would always talk baseball while having a few drinks, (he always had one or two, while I drank like a Marine) and laugh about the Tigers and how much better the White Sox were. He was always a pleasure to be around and a peacemaker in the sometimes volatile world of the Marines.
Brian Lane was a Marine I knew from India Company, I don’t even remember how I first met him, probably during some kind of training. He was an acquaintance, you know the kind of person that you would greet and make small talk with if you ran into somewhere. I know he was from Indiana and he was 20 like Porter.
Both of these Marines were killed during the Gulf War on consecutive days. Christian Porter on February 24, 1991 and Brian Lane on February 25, 1991. These two heroes were the only two Marines killed during the Gulf War from 3/7 and their deaths have stuck with everyone in the battalion. Christian Porter was killed by “friendly fire” on the first day of the ground war. He was driving one of the M-939 5-ton trucks that we used to transport supplies. He was part of the logistics train following several miles behind the rest of the battalion, who were walking into Kuwait. 3rd Battalion 7th Marines, our sister battalion 2/7 and 3rd Battalion 12th Marines (an artillery unit) comprised Task Force Grizzly, a foot-mobile force, (not counting 3/12 who had trucks for their howitzers), that was tasked with breaching the mine fields and bunker complexes just across the border inside Kuwait. Next to us was Task Force Ripper, composed of the remaining battalion in the 7th Marines, 1/7, 1st Battalion 5th Marine Regiment and the 3rd Tank Battalion. This was a vehicle-mobile unit with 40 M-60 Patton tanks. The plan had both task forces driving into Kuwait with Ripper looping around behind Grizzly and attacking in a more westerly direction. Unfortunately, the timing was off and when the tanks of Ripper was moving behind us the came across the logistics train plodding along in their 5-tons and Humvees, neither of which were part of the, already retreating, Iraqi army's list of vehicles. The tanks apparently didn't think that US vehicles coming from the south might actually be US forces and opened fire on the supply vehicles. The tanks were loaded for a fight against Iraqi tanks and had HEAT (high explosive anti-tank) rounds which made mincemeat out of the trucks and humvees. One round travelled through the door of the vehicle Christian Porter was driving, through him, without detonating, out the driver's door and through the beds of three more trucks without hitting anything hard enough to cause it to detonate. Christian was killed instantly. News of his death and the circumstances surrounding it, raced through the battalion like wildfire. All Marines understand that there is a chance that they will be called to serve in a combat situation and their life would be on the line, but the idea that one of us would be killed by fire from our own side was never even considered. There would be consequences for the members of 3rd Tanks but that is another story. There are always “friendly fire” incidents in every war, because of the confused nature of war. It every other war the number of those deaths are vastly outnumbered by the enemy caused deaths. In nearly every other war the percentage of “friendly-fire” casualties is 2%, in the Gulf War it was 25%.
The very next day Task Force Grizzly moved further into Kuwait and was poised to occupy the Kuwaiti Air Force Base of Al Jaber. Unfortunately, because of smoke from all the oil wells fires we were unable to determine that there was still a substantial force of Iraqis at the airbase. 3/7 was leading the attack with the other two battalions in a parallel line behind us. During a night so black that even starlight scopes didn't help, (because of the massive amount of smoke from the oil wells that had been set on fire by Iraqi forces), we stumbled into a battle we didn't expect in conditions no one should have to fight in. Visibility was at the best of times no more than ten feet and at the worst, three feet. This battle was a violent, sometimes hand to hand collection of little fights between small groups of Marines and Iraqis. It is hard to describe the chaos and confusion of this battle. The radios worked just fine but no one knew where they were in relation to anyone else which made coordination nearly impossible. Once the Iraqis realized they were under attack, they began firing mortars randomly into the dark. I’m sure they hit their own troops as well as making it even more difficult for us to continue the attack. One of those mortar rounds hit near Brian Lane, peppering him with shrapnel, we’re not sure how long after he was hit that it was discovered that he had been wounded but the call came over the radio that a medivac was needed. When the helicopter reach the area they reported that it would be impossible to land because of the smoke obscuring everything. He would have to be evacuated a different way. Lane was taken off the line by fellow Marines and moved to the rear while at the same time a humvee from the Battalion Headquarters was sent to meet him. It was slow going for the vehicle as it had to be escorted by a Marine walking in front of it with a hand on the hood because of the darkness. They eventually met, and Lane was put in the vehicle, which repeated the process to return to the rear. Somewhere in that process, he died. The battle went on throughout the night but at some point the Iraqis withdrew under the cover of the smoke and darkness. It wasn’t until morning that word had spread about a second death in the battalion, to make matters worse three days later, February 28th, President Bush called and end to any offensive operations and on March 3 1991 Iraq signed a cease-fire agreement. The ground war had only taken 100 hours but it has left a lasting mark on me, as well as everyone who knew Christian Porter and Brian Lane.
So today, when everyone is outside having fun and enjoying the start of summer, I’m thinking of two American heroes who would have been 51 this year. They should be enjoying the long weekend with friends and family but instead they gave their last full measure for their country and will remain 20 years old in fading pictures and memories. Today should be the day that all Americans remember those, like Christian Porter and Brian Lane, as well as thousands of others that have given their lives so we could enjoy the freedom this country has offered since 1776. Today I will have a drink and toast Christian and Brian with a hearty Semper Fi!!
Join me next time for the next post in the horribly named A Short History of Israel. If you would like to leave a comment or question, subscribe to this publication or share this post, please click the buttons below.
A worthy remembrance of two young men.