In the United States, today is Memorial Day. Most people will be using this weekend to spend time with their family. It’s probably the best way to honor the sacrifice of those lives lost in war. For those of us that deployed, however, it still hurts knowing that we lost some of our own. It hurts even more when you know the person personally. The people that I know of who died, I wasn’t particularly acquainted with them, I knew them well enough that I could say hello to them and have a conversation- but that was about it. So when I went to Iraq and watched as the medics carry a body out of a Compact Housing Unit (CHU), it wasn’t me that felt the most heartache - it was my battle buddies.
I won’t say his name. I won’t give you the years I was in Iraq either. I don’t want what happened to him to taint his memory, I’m not even certain what they told his family about his death. But I’ll tell you the truth of his death: It didn’t quite qualify as a suicide or an accident overdose. He died from “Huffing”. For those that do not know what “Huffing” is, (in this very particular case) it’s when you inhale canned air. The effects are terrible, and he had been doing this regularly since we got into country. It was a way for him and a couple of buddies to escape the problems of the war.
Oftentimes, during Memorial Day, we remember the sacrifices of people that died in country as being the ones we remember. But I think that Memorial Day needs to be rethought, that we need to recognize the war doesn’t stop for a veteran. Now, don’t think that I’m saying Memorial Day should be about Veterans in general- no this day is meant to commemorate the sacrifices of deceased veterans. Instead, I’m asking you to think about even those veterans that come home, and die outside of combat- but can be directly linked to their combat. Combat Veterans sacrifice more than their lives, oftentimes they loose their lives because they sacrificed their sanity for your way of life.
This Memorial Day, save a seat for all the veterans that cannot see another Memorial Day.