Memorial Day: Blessed are they
By Times-Dispatch Staff
Published: May 30, 2011
Today America pauses. A grateful nation remembers and offers thanks. Memorial Day honors those who gave the last full measure of devotion; liberty endures because of those who died on its behalf.
The brave always have answered the call. Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and other engagements made the Declaration of Independence possible. Early defeat would have crushed the Revolution. Ideas motivated the Founders; sacrifice ensured their success.
Guns may fall silent, yet as philosophers have said only the dead have seen the end of war. The war to end all war, for instance, led to a second global conflagration in 20 years. The wounds of Normandy and Iwo Jima, of Bastogne and Guadalcanal had not healed before the U.S. engaged in combat at the Pusan Perimeter and the Chosin Reservoir. Americans bled in Vietnam. For decades they stood sentinel in a divided Europe. Today, they stand guard in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 230 Virginians have died in the war against jihadism.
When he said farewell to the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps, Gen. Douglas MacArthur said of the American soldier:
"From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.
"I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they saw the way and the light."
MacArthur's words continue to describe the men and woman who have chosen the profession of arms — a profession equaled only by the clergy. Today is a day to take pilgrimages to war memorials, and to bend the knee.