The Wall That Heals

For most of America, Memorial Day isn't for another roughly three months. But for the men and women who visited The Wall That Heals...it was that day. For many of them it will be Memorial Day each and every day. As we stood, in awe at the sheer size and scale of the wall, filled with name after name after name...names that meant something to someone. Names that to someone, meant the entire world.Maybe there was a love that never returned. Or an angry son who left after arguing with his father...a mother...a daughter...It hits unlike anything you've ever experienced, a sudden weight felt upon the shoulders as reality sets in and you realize that each one of them hoped for a future beyond the war. We walked away from the wall with heavy hearts, with proud hearts. We knew that not all of those names wanted to be there, but they went, they did their duty.I remember boarding the plane to come home from our first deployment, there were empty seats, where just 7 months earlier there had been laughter, smiles and a brother. I was glad to come home, but I'll never forget looking at the empty seats and picturing the men we lost sitting there, watching DVDs or listening to music...

It was a solemn reminder that for many in this country, every day is Memorial Day. Don't misinterpret and think that we're saying that you need to be sad or morose each and every day to remember and honor the fallen. A simple acknowledgment that maybe not yesterday or the day before, but somewhere in our history as a nation, someone paid the ultimate price with the intent that we could live free, that we'd be free of the burdens that they shouldered.We do our best to remember those who've given their all by doing our best here and now. We look to the past and acknowledge the sacrifice, then push forward, taking with us the lessons they taught during their lives. We remember the cost every day, not just on the last Monday in May. Every day is Memorial Day because their impact has affected the rest of our lives.