Mack Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
"We Will Remember Them"
Memorial Day is said to have begun during the Civil War as Decoration Day, when the fresh graves of the war dead were decorated with flowers in their memory. Numerous towns, north and south, claim to have begun the tradition of decorating the graves of all soldiers of both sides. Wherever this noble custom began, honoring those who served is what civilized nations do.
On Memorial Day we still honor the loyal departed, those who died in war and those who passed on in peace.
Last month, a C130 of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard went down with the loss of all its crew.
These fine young men and their aircraft recently served our nation throughout the Caribbean in evacuation and supply duties for months after Hurricane Maria.
As we now know, this aging C130 was being flown to Tucson to be scrapped. Some sources say the plane was 40 years old; some say 50 and some say 60. In any event, the plane was older than any of its crew.
Maybe it’s always been true that this nation sends its finest young men and women to fight contemporary wars with the leftovers from past wars.
Those young men are:
Major José Rosado, pilot
Major Carlos Serra, navigator
1st Lieutenant David Albandoz, co-pilot
Senior Master Sgt. Jan Paravisini, mechanic
Master Sgt. Jean Audriffred
Master Sgt. Mario Braña, flight engineer
Master Sgt. Víctor Colón
Master Sgt. Eric Circuns, loadmaster
Senior Airman Roberto Espada
We did not know these young men who died for us, but let us praise them now, and honor them, and let us remember these three things about them:
1. All of these young men served in the Air National Guard – you know, that safe duty. For decades some who never made the first day of recruit training have claimed that the Reserves and the National Guard are easy billets, a nice soft way of avoiding hazardous duty.
Rupert Brooke wrote in 1914 “If I should die, think only this of me / There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.”
Well, we can write that there are lots of corners of lots of foreign fields that are forever American Reserves and National Guard.
2. All of these young men were millennials – you know, that generation of delicate snowflakes who just lay around the house playing video games and who won’t demonstrate initiative. The reality is that our military, our emergency and police services, our workforce – they’re millennials, the generation that came of age at the turn of the century and who now are entering early middle age.
3. The nine who died were not eligible to vote in federal elections. Residents of Puerto Rico have been, since 1917, citizens of the United States, and yet they may not vote in federal elections. These nine young men, as part of their oath of enlistment, pledged personal loyalty to their president, and they could not, by law, vote for their president. They were not permitted to vote for the government of the nation for which they died in active military service.
We should do something about that.
I return to Senior Airman Roberto Espada – how old was he? 21? 22? – who is survived only by his grandmother, his meemaw. We can infer that his meemaw raised him. And she raised a good young man. And he won’t be going home to her. And yet some are pleased to dismiss Roberto as a millennial, a snowflake. His meemaw knows better, and all true Americans know better too.
Shakespeare, 400 years ago, wrote about young Roberto. In Act V of Macbeth:, a warrior who has fought against the tyrant Macbeth is told that his young son – let us call him Roberto – was killed in the battle. Macduff says to the grieving father:
“Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt:
He only lived but till he was a man”
Senior Airman Roberto Espada only lived until he was a man.
On Memorial Day let us remember him, his crewmates, and all the loyal departed with Lawrence Binyon’s fine words:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.
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