Why do we observe Memorial Day? Ask a veteran

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Don Branum
  • 50th Space Wing Public Affairs
SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFPN) --  If you want to know why our nation observes Memorial Day, ask a veteran.

I recently visited the Colorado Springs Veterans of Foreign Wars post. The Lt. Marion L. Willis VFW Post 101 is “the oldest and friendliest VFW in town,” said retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Jose Vazquez with an easy smile.

He knows it’s the only VFW post in town, but that doesn’t make his boast any less true. He and the others working in the bar are all volunteers, and they offer warm welcomes to anyone in a military uniform who walks through their door.

The VFW actively supports local veterans, raising money for military-affiliated charities in Colorado Springs and taking care of veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We have a lot of young people come in,” he says. “We babysit ‘em. We cook for ‘em and make sure they’re taken care of.”

A group of motorcyclists, the VFW Warriors, recently had returned from a ride to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“We always go, every year,” he said. “We go in memory of all the folks who didn’t make it back. We like to go there to remember friends who didn’t make it back. You don’t just forget them.”

Sergeant Vazquez is a 25-year veteran and former Airborne Ranger. He served two tours in Vietnam. The Army medically evacuated him during his second tour after he was hit with shrapnel from a mortar round.

He considers himself fortunate to have made it back. Twenty-seven names of the 58,000 on the wall are friends of his who did not. He says softly, as he leans on the bar, that it’s not something he likes to discuss. After four decades, it still hurts to think about the brothers in arms who couldn’t come home with him.

“We go to the wall, we leave flowers and we pray for them,” he said as he wipes the corner of his eye. Gradually, the easy smile returns to his expression.

A moment later, he says, “I’m a sentimental guy. I served 25 years and every unit I left, it felt like I was leaving family behind.”

I nodded in agreement with Sergeant Vazquez.

“The military is like a family. They both go through their pain and suffering and their joy,” he said, and I nodded again. The military is a family, one where you meet new brothers and sisters all the time.

That’s why we observe Memorial Day: the day set aside for us to remember all the military family members who are no longer with us.