Remembrance Walk and Ceremony

Sacrifice.

It is with honor and privilege to have served this great nation. My service to this country nearly cost me my life. Instead, I merely sacrificed a leg. And none of it matters on this day because I did not pay the ultimate sacrifice. I got to come home when thousands of my fellow warriors and comrades before me did not. Today is their day. Today we remember the service members who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of the red, white, and blue.

This is the day we pay homage to all those who didn’t come home. This is not Veterans Day, it’s not a celebration, it is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of freedom.

To me Memorial Day means honoring those who have served before me and those members of the military that have made the ultimate sacrifice. It means reflecting on the freedoms that we enjoy in this country that those sacrifices have preserved. Personally, it means remembering the family members that served before me, my Grandfather in WWII, a great uncle in the Spanish American War and WWI, and my father during Korea. In the Oxford Cemetery we have two Medal of Honor recipients, a Union Army soldier that was killed in action at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and a soldier named Roy Walton Gibson who was killed in action in France during WWI who the American Legion Post is named, just to highlight a few of those that are the reason for Memorial Day.

Memorial Day for me is a time to remember and honor the men and women of our armed forces who fought and died in defense of the freedoms we enjoy and to respect and appreciate their call to duty, honor and country. We must never forget their sacrifice or take for granted their legacy.

Memorial Day means to me the never-ending thankfulness we as American’s hold for the men and women who served before us and lost their lives fighting for our great nation. It is a day meant to venerate the souls lost and the families affected by these tragic events. It’s not a time to be sad, or a time to wish things were different, but a time to praise GOD for his mercy and understand everything that happens is all in HIS plan. Us, as Oxfordians, should take today to pray for the families and friends of those lost.

Gratitude –
For my most influential High School teachers to emphatically rehearsing, and helping me to understand the importance of General John Logan’s Order #11…then delivering it respectfully.

Pride –
In polishing my spats and trumpet, honored to play TAPS after the ceremonies benediction, yet to this day, flinching at the sound of the Honor Guard firing those .30 caliber rifles…knowing it was coming, because you have watched it your entire life.

Loss –
Memories of so many Veteran friends out Oxford community has lost throughout the years, our true Hometown Heroes. May we diligently continue to honor them, remind our younger generations, and never forget what they did for us!

I’m incredibly grateful for the men and women who served and gave their lives so we may live in freedom. Their bravery is unimaginable. I think too of their grieving families and loved ones who have been left behind. For me, Memorial Day is a solemn time of remembrance.

It is an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices of our finest citizens, to mourn their passing and to lift up their loved ones in loss.

Memorial Day – setting aside one day that our heroes couldn’t have. Today means the memory of heroic sacrifice. Every Memorial Day since I was old enough, I go to the cemetery and crack open a beer with my grandfather who served in Korea. I always leave one on the headstone.

Our tradition every Memorial Day is to go to the cemetery to visit and plant flowers on my in-laws grave. My mother-in-law and father-in-law were both in the Navy. My brother-in-law Tom, was in the Army. While serving his country, he was killed in Vietnam.

Memorial Day is a day we as a family, remember the sacrifices our service men, women and their families made for everyone to have freedom. We have this freedom because of those who paid the ultimate price and are no longer with us.