By Staff
Our View
Earlier this week America celebrated Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a time for reflection and a time to support our troops past and present, those who have died and those that are prisoners of war and those that have been missing in action.
In Atmore at 11 a.m. on Monday the Veterans of Foreign Wars put on a program to honor the fathers, mothers, sons and daughters that have fought and died for this country.
As each American war was listed a bell was rang twice in remembrance of those who have fought before.
The last bell to ring was for the fallen from this current war.
At roughly the same time Spc. Phillip Sayles of the 24th Infantry Regiment was killed. He wasn't from Alabama, but he died for Alabama and 49 other states just the same.
As of Memorial Day 1,657 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began.
Many of them were so called "weekend warriors," National guardsmen like our own 711th.
A large majority of the troops in Iraq are members of the Guard and the Reserve.
In Atmore we were lucky that all, but one of our troops came back healthy. The one who didn't was taken by cancer rather than an insurgent's bullet.
Other communities, at least 1,000 of them in America, have not been so lucky.
Though Memorial Day is over we should not forget our soldiers as the saying goes, "All gave some, some gave all."
Everyday should be a Memorial Day. If a day goes by that we don't at least pray for our troops then we have failed in our duty as Americans.
Memorial Day is not just a day off work. It is not just a day when the banks close. Though that's how many think of it.
The small gathering at the VFW's Memorial Day ceremony proved that a few people still believe in what the day stands for.
A lone bugler played a song of death and a bell tolled for those who have passed on for their country. For Memorial Day is more about honor than a day off.