Benefits Alert Volume 474 | May 21, 2021

This year’s Memorial Day will be celebrated in the United States with solemn ceremonies marked by recognition of the sacrifices of American women and men in uniform at innumerable memorials located throughout the country.  These memorials are everyday reminders which really only come into sharp focus, however, on that one special day at the end of May.  Less in one’s consciousness, if indeed one is even aware of them, are the many memorials to deceased American service members in foreign countries which deserve attention.

It would be well therefore to contemplate on our Memorial Day the whereabouts and nature of memorials abroad.  One can even start next door, in Mexico.  In Mexico City at the National Cemetery is a small monument at the site over the graves of 750 of our unidentified personnel killed in the War of 1847.   Inscribed on the monument are the words, ”To the Honored Memory Of 750 Americans, Known But To God, Whose Bones, Collected By Their Country’s Order, Are Buried Here.” 

With Memorial Day next weekend, we all experience the temptation to go out, celebrate and enjoy our lives again. We’ve earned it, after 15 months of sacrifice, fear and uncertainty. And yet, at the same time, we must remember the true meaning of this “holiday”, the recognition of the hundreds of thousands of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, to preserve our liberties.

It’s been eighty years since the start of World War II, over 70 years since hostilities began in Korea, over 50 years since Vietnam’s first shots, 30 years since Operation Desert Storm, and 20 years since the 9/11 attacks on this nation. For all these reasons, on this Memorial Day, we remember and honor those who perished over the last century in service to our county and those brave men and women who serve today.