Remember the Fallen

As I have mentioned before, I am currently battling cancer, with a poor prognosis. It of course causes me to spend some time contemplating my life, past, present, and future, and the aspect of death.

I am also a student of history, and have spent years teaching history. I began reading about the American Civil War and World War II in junior high and have never stopped. Of course I read the history, but did not "feel" the history as I do today, facing mortality as I do now.

Recently I have watched movies like "Saving Private Ryan", "Band of Brothers", and the movies "Gettysburg" and "Gods and Generals". Of course when you read about such things, you see numbers, and statistics, but you do not see the thousands of young men who died in those conflicts. I think such movies have done a better job of giving us a realistic picture of the horrors of war, and while you may not wish to see the violence, death and savagery of war, I believe we should all see it and understand why it is so important to stop war, and remember those who fight.

I now have an 18 year old son. I know even today, there are young men his age fighting and dying across the globe. It scares me to think of him in harms way. To think of thousands of men his age hitting a beach in Normandy or jumping from an airplane under fire, it is so hard for me to comprehend those brave men and what they did. I have spent a lot of time thinking about the sacrifice and courage these men and women have to face such things.

I have done a lot of study in regards to D-Day in World War II. The casualties in those initial assaults were horrendous. Men never even made it out of the boats or out of the airplanes before being wounded or more often killed. Even as I face death in my struggle with cancer, I cannot begin to comprehend the courage and bravery these men had. Yes, I know they were afraid, and I know they did not want to die, but they did what they had to. To me, any man who has fought for his country is a hero unlike any other, to face something so horrific so the majority of us never have to.

I am forty four years old, young by today’s standards. I am hopeful for a remission of my cancer, but the odds are it will not happen. I have a loving wife of twenty years and four wonderful children. There are times when I feel like I could be cheated out of so many more years with them. No, I am not about to give up, and still feel confident I will find a way to overcome the cancer.

Still, I think about those last twenty or so years, and how blessed I have been to have them, and the family I have made. I thin of how much time I have been given here on Earth that so many never had. How many men died on beaches on France, or the Pacific, or other countless places that never had that chance, who never raised a family, or got a job, or did the other countless thinks I have done in the last twenty-five years. How cheated was the world by the gifts they could have brought to us all.

I also think of those who served and returned home. Their hero’s welcome should never end, and some of them never received one, which is more shameful. Those veterans of any conflict should always be remembered and honored, as those who currently serve and protect our country, knowing they too may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. I was raised in a military family, my father served over twenty years, yet only recently have I even come to think of the sacrifices he made during his life.

In my current battle with cancer, I draw courage and inspiration from these men and women, many so young, yet so dedicated. They face things more horrendous than most of us can imagine. I face the aspect of death, as we all do, and all will, but I have time. We are all of course "terminal" and only God knows the final hour. But in my struggle, there is no suddenness and violence to the end. I know I am ill, but I am not living second to second and minute to minute with the possibility of sudden death. I live enjoying life, the life that so many sacrificed for me to have.

We must always remember the sacrifice so many have made, and make now to ensure our freedom. They are the true hero’s – even to people such as I, fighting our own battles.