The Ultimate Sacrifice Asks for One Day

THINK ABOUT TAKING SOME TIME OFF FROM TELEVISION, THE BEACH, AND THE COOKOUTS and doing something that matters this Monday:

Visit a national cemetery and honor those who've died for America.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER

CALVERTON, N.Y.--Here at Calverton National Cemetery, a place of sandy soil and quiet trees on eastern Long Island, workers are putting up American flags that will line the roads on this Memorial Day weekend. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will arrive tomorrow to place small flags on each of Calverton's 146,000 grave sites. This is Calverton's busiest weekend.

But on a rainy afternoon in midweek, Calverton was empty and calm. It was probably like this in all of the 120 national cemeteries around the United States, which hold the remains of American soldiers all the way back to the Civil War.

I saw an old man at Calverton park his pickup and head out with a bad limp across an expanse of white grave markers. He seemed to know where he was going. I stopped by two new graves, side by side, with very white headstones. They had fresh flowers and a votive candle still burning from morning visitors. Someone had left an unopened bottle of Bud beneath the flowers, meaning I guess that the soldier liked his beer.

Both of these men, Army Staff Sgt. Anthony S. Lagman and Sgt. Michael J. Esposito Jr., winners of the Bronze Star with valor, were killed the same day in Afghanistan in March. Sgt. Lagman's headstone says: "Persian Gulf, Bosnia, Afghanistan." To the right of their graves lies Marine Lance Cpl. William Wayne White, who died last year, early in the Iraq war.
-- OpinionJournal - Wonder Land

The list of National Cemetaries and their Memorial Day Services can be found: Here.

Some give all. You can give some.

Posted by Vanderleun at May 31, 2004 1:45 PM | TrackBack