Yes, I’m speaking of the men and women who have served in our military forces … totaling in the tens of millions … of our nation, dating back to the founding of the republic!
Each year, our calendars note three distinct days for doing so. Why three, rather than two or just one. Because … and you — as a regular reader of Marlin’s Musings — likely know the answer … each one carries a different focus.
As I post this, we sit midway between two of the three … having celebrated Armed Forces Day last Saturday, with Memorial Day on this coming Monday’s calendar.
In case you’ve not thought about it, here’s the defining focus of each:
- Established by President Harry Truman in 1950, Armed Forces Day is celebrated the third Saturday of May each year and honors all of those presently serving in some branch of our military services, whether on active duty or in the reserves.
- Then, 10 days later we celebrate Memorial Day. Originally called Decoration Day, this holiday grew out of our nation’s devastating Civil War, created to be a remembrance of those who died in that horrific brother-against-brother event. Following the end of World War One in 1918, the name was changed and it became a time for honoring all Americans who died fighting in any war. The original Decoration Day name came about from the tradition of decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.
- Regarding the third armed forces honoring holiday, Veterans Day … as I wrote on this page last November: Since that time (the end of WWI), the date has been a special day on our calendars … initially known as Armistice Day here in the United States, to celebrate the “boys” coming home from that brutal conflict on foreign soil and to honor and remember those who did not. In 1954, November 11th was officially re-named Veterans Day, to honor all who served in our military, regardless of date or war. In other parts of the world, November 11th is also a declared holiday, but has always carried the name Remembrance Day.
Personally, I am proud to have served in the United States Army. However, let me make two things clear: 1) I did not enter the service voluntarily, I was sent a special “no rejection” invitation to join the ranks, then chose to serve an extra year rather than be trained to drive a tank; and 2) compared to the greatest percentage of those who served over the past two-and-one-half centuries, there was nothing I did or was involved in during my three-plus years which called for courage or valor of any sort. My time came between wars, Korea and Vietnam … fulfilling simple roles such as personnel clerk, radio announcer and producing Army recruiting radio shows.
Compare that to what so many of those who served our country in order to protect our freedoms faced in the way of combat, so many of whom did not survive. While it was just one of many, at this moment I’m thinking of the battle whose 75th anniversary we’ll observe in just a couple of weeks … Second World War’s D-Day invasion, where several thousand young men died in one day storming the beaches of Normandy in France in the face of relentless Nazi machine-gun fire.
While it may not be a military hymn as such … to my mind there’s no piece of music more appropriate for any of these three days than “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s recording of it, which made such an impact when first released that it spent several weeks in the top 25 positions of Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 chart in later months of 1959!
Finally, as relates to next Monday, May 27th … Memorial Day: The “National Moment of Remembrance” is a resolution passed in 2000, urging all Americans at 3 P. M. their local time “to voluntarily and informally pause from whatever they are doing and observe a moment of silence … in honor of all those men and women who have given their all for our nation!”
Remembering, Honoring, Saluting the men and women of the armed forces of our United States of America!
Thank you and God Bless America
