Memorial Day 2013

You know who you are.

You are the first wave on the beach at Normandy.

You are the tunnel rat who never spoke of the horrors you saw at Cu Chi.

You are the Marine wounded in an engagement that was never reported in the newspapers.

You are the pilot shot down over enemy territory.

You are the prisoner of war who never broke under torture.

You are the sailor who was killed on the USS Cole.

You are the officer who risked his life for his men.

You are the shell of a man dying alone in a VA hospital in the middle of nowhere.

You are the one whose eyes fill with tears when you hear the National Anthem.

You are the one who salutes Old Glory.

You are the one interred at Arlington.

You are the one who served with the men memorialized on a black granite wall.

You are the one who answered your country’s call to arms.

You are the unheralded hero, the scorned veteran, the unknown soldier.

You know who you are.

I honor you.