What Memorial Day means to me

May 26 was Memorial Day and I sat at home reflecting on its meaning. I guess it is a day that we honor relatives who are no longer with us and service members that gave their lives to preserve our freedom.

To me it is a time to visit the grave of my wife, who passed away a year and a half ago, to pay my respects and enduring love to her. A sad time for me.

I then think about the service members who gave their lives so that we could live in freedom. I think about the many wars during my 90-year lifetime.

I was 6 years old in 1941 when World War II started for the United States. The population of the U.S. was about 132 million; 16 million served, of which 416,800 were killed. Several of my playmates lost their fathers and their mothers had to bring them up. Talk about heroes.

When one joined the service in 1941, they were in for what they called “the duration.” That meant you were in the service for the entire war. Some were gone for three to four years or more. They were uneasy about returning home, as they had changed as their families had changed. Many marriages and relationships did not survive this transition, another unseen casualty of war and separation. The movie “The Best Years of Our Lives” brilliantly discusses this fear and transition. Many years later, I was uneasy about returning home after being gone for 14 months. I now understand the cause of this uneasiness.

We lost about 36,500 in the Korean War and some 58,500 in the Vietnam War. I lost friends while overseas and think about them each Memorial Day. Additionally, I observed marriages and relations dissolve after the long separations. It took my wife and I a long time to reconstruct our pre-separation relationship.

This is why we have Memorial Day.

Bob Marquis

Main Street

Captain, United States Marine Corps (Ret.)