Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day and the expeditionary airlift squadron had a cookout behind our quarters. We're a small tight knit group. Just like mainstream America we too were concerned with getting our meat fix and having tasty beer. As I looked around the pavillion I wondered how many of us were thinking what today really is about.

I know I was. Am. I saw a group of aeromedical evacuation technicians in their tans this morning. They were headed out on an evac from Afghanistan back here to the large Army hospital that is the first stop for those wounded in the middle east. More than likely they will be reminded the whole way back to here what this day means. I don't envy their job. We bitch about carrying them during peacetime training missions because they are a bunch of idiots who drain our oxygen system and hold up our takeoff times. But in reality, each and every one of us would want them by our side should we be wounded in country. They do a superb job of keeping the wounded alive until they can get here to have the proper care.

According to the schedule we'll get our turn to fly near the end of the week. We're launching a crew into harm's way and recovering one. It's not as busy as I like, but I can only do what Uncle Sam tells me to do. In the meantime I am preparing my gear and studying all the information about what type of flying I'll be doing. Reading over the code words and actions if we get shot down and practicing with our radios that we have in our survival vests to make sure I know how to use it. I'm excited and nervous, but mostly excited as I want to fly and do what I signed on to do.

For those of us who observe today's holiday, remember that while your enjoying time with your loved ones there are tens of thousands who have chosen to forgoe that luxury so that you may. At this very hour they are in harms way and some may not return. Today I think I'll read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as it embodies the sentiments we should all feel, if not everyday, especially today. Tune in tomorrow where there will be happier thoughts.

Have a safe, somber, and respectful Memorial Day.