Steve Frey
Students throughout the New River Valley are celebrating graduation from high school.
As you sit in the audience or at a graduation party, take a good look at how young and vibrant they are.
Over the years, other students sat in those seats. Soon after, they found themselves thrust into life and death struggles around the world. Many never came home.
Some students graduated in the spring of 1944 and in late summer or fall found themselves between the hedgerows of France. Many eighteen year olds spent Christmas of that year struggling to defend places like Bastogne in Belgium against German forces primed for a final major offensive.
They fought through the bitter cold and soon clawed back lost ground to eliminate the “bulge” in their lines. Many of those spring graduates died, and many others were captured. As with prisoners of war generally, quite a few never made it home.
Some of those high school graduates of 1944 had a similar experience in entirely different terrain. They were assigned to capture a little island called Iwo Jima in February 1945. It took them a month of hard fighting to prevail, and the cost was extremely high: 5,900 American dead and 17,400 wounded.
Six years after the 1944 graduates received their diplomas, their brothers and sisters had the same honor in the spring of 1950. Many of these young men found themselves in the snow, ice and -35 degrees cold of Korea in November.
In the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, 30,000 U.N. troops, many U.S. Marines, were surrounded by 150,000 Chinese soldiers. They struggled through the encirclement and battled valiantly in a fighting retreat to the coast. They were supported on their flank by U.S. Army divisions which took massive casualties. Understandably, most of those high school seniors of 1950 are reluctant to discuss the horrors of the Chosin Reservoir today.
Many graduates of 1944 celebrated their children’s graduations in the spring of 1967. These young men found themselves in the jungles of Vietnam in January 1968. Several of them were in Hue, which was overrun by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive.
It took American and South Vietnamese troops about a month to recapture Hue, and again, the cost in lives was enormous.
Desert Storm, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other theaters of war around the world have had their share of spring graduates who have lost their lives within a few short months of graduation.
Which brings us to this Monday, Memorial Day.
Memorial Day is set aside each year to remember those soldiers who have died fighting for our freedom. It is one of the most sacred American holidays of the year.
Who will you remember?
Many of us know of a soldier who died in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, or Iraq. Some may even know a soldier who died in Syria, Bosnia or other conflicts.
If you do, you have a picture in your mind’s eye of a relative or friend who made the ultimate sacrifice. If you don’t, just look around at the young men and women at a Memorial Day or graduation program.
The men and women who died in past wars looked just like them.
There will be a Memorial Day program this Monday, May 28 at 11:00 a.m. at Bisset Park in Radford. It will include the high school chorus and band, special speakers, dignitaries and members of the VFW and American Legion.
There will also be 59 crosses representing soldiers from Radford who lost their lives in various wars. The names of those soldiers will be read, and there will be a 21-gun salute with the playing of “Taps.” Attending would be a great way for the community to honor the men and women who have given so much to this country.
The American Legion in Radford is called the Harvey-Howe-Carper Post 30 of the American Legion. It is named after three young men who died in 1918 in World War I, “the war to end all wars.”
They were First Lieutenant Alfred R. Harvey, who was killed in action in Belgium on Aug. 22; Captain Elliott H. Howe, who was killed in action north of Verdun on Oct. 12 (only a month before the end of the war.); and Sergeant Jacob W. Carper, who was killed in action in the Argonne Forest on Aug. 18.
Like all young men and women, they had hopes and dreams. They had many plans for the future, but those plans were cut short.
So many men and women have lost their lives in the service of our country. They died to protect the freedoms that we sometimes take for granted.
Remember, there are countries around the world that prohibit free speech. There are places where a citizen can’t voice an opinion or protest against injustice. There are also places where people are prevented from practicing the religion of their choice. There are countries where the government controls the entire news media.
Many have fought and died to protect these rights in America.
The men and women who died at Verdun, Bastogne, the Chosin Reservoir, Hue, Jalibah Airfield and so many other places made the ultimate sacrifice. It is important on Memorial Day to take some time to contemplate just how significant a sacrifice that was for those soldiers, their families and the community.
This Monday, when you listen at the Memorial Day service to the 24 slowly played notes in “Taps” and see the American flag briskly waving in the breeze, think of these words of Abraham Lincoln: “we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Remember young men like Alfred Harvey, Elliott Howe and Jacob Carper who gave their “last full measure of devotion” so that we can live in freedom. Remember all of those spring graduates who did their duty, fought bravely and never came home.
Finally, be thankful that we have the opportunity, because of their sacrifice, to live in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
