For Your Sacrifice

I woke today thinking about those who have served to keep us free.  The list grew longer and longer.  I thought about those who I know, who are still alive, and those who have passed.  I don’t think we really understand, or ever will understand the experience of fighting in war.  Those of us who stayed home during these experiences, who heard about it in the news or watched it on TV, can never fully understand what is in the hearts and minds of those ones who laid it all on the line.  Today I honor, with this simple remembrance, those ones I know of. 

My family has had someone in every war fought by the United States from the Revolutionary War all the way up through Vietnam.  I am blessed that my own sons and nephews did not have to go to war.  I have seen first hand the effects that war has on the bodies and souls of those who survive.  The visible scars are not even the deepest ones.  Those wounds that scar the heart and mind last a lifetime.  I remember my grandfather, cheerful as he was when he was awake, struggling each night with nightmares.  Like the good soldier he was, when he woke, he placed his life in the hands of his creator, and put on a smile and went about his day.  My father still struggles with PTSD, suffering because of injuries that he sustained in the Pacific theatre in WWII.  Although he never talked openly about his experiences, when I grew aware of what caused his outbursts and actually listened to what he was saying, I was horrified by the things he talked about. 

My oldest brother has grown more and more discontent with life, and gone deeper and deeper into his own world from all that he saw.  My mother, who never complained about anything, gave the ultimate sacrifice of her life.  Although she never was in the battle zones of the war, she served as an army nurse, taking care of those wounded ones, and eventually contracted a disease from the South Pacific that would take her life.  Many in our family would say “ How can she stand to be around your father?” when he was in “Battle Mode”, but having seen so many wounded, she knew and understood the suffering that goes on long after the battle has ended. 

To those who served, who fought, who died, I want to take some time today to mention their names.  Theirs are the unspoken honors that we reflect on today. By writing this down, I remember with each word written, their service and heartfelt thanks for the freedom that was purchased with great price. 
It would seem that the list is endless to some of us.  There are so many that seem forgotten.  Police, Firefighters, Military, Correctional Officers.. There are so many who give their lives to protect and defend ours.  It would seem that we cannot remember them all, but God, the God of Love, He does.  He knows every name, every heartbeat, every fear they ever faced, and every heartbreak, every trial.  He knows and remembers. 
 (If there are any here I have forgotten, or did not know of, please add a comment line, and mention their service.)

1776, Joseph Stewart.  Revolutionary War. 

1863, George Washington Hoopes Civil War Northern Army  

1918, Charles Edgar Linn WWI Meuse-Argonne Offensive, France 

1918, Walter Linn, WWI, France

1918. Charles Williams WWI

1942, Delbert Linn, WWII, Pacific Theatre

1942, Ada Mae Williams Linn, Women’s Army Corps

1942, Ruth Bombeno Linn, Women’s Naval Corps

1942, Edgar Linn (Deceased in line of service) Army Air Force WWII

1942, George Williams, WWII

1942, Glenn Williams, WWII

1942, Harold Williams, WWII

1942, Ernest Lenz, WWII

1966, Harold Linn, Vietnam. 

George F. Williams US Air Force. 

Bob Mooney, US Navy, Vietnam

Manny Provencio, USMC Iraq

Rahn Johnson, US Army Iraq 
Joseph Mooney, USN WWII, 
Tommy Joe Howell, USAF
Tom Tracy USAF
Jack Hilbert, USAF
Richard Mooney, USN
Christopher Lee Mooney, USN
Robert  Pearson USA Vietnam 
William Musselwhite USN Vietnam 
Robert Aguilar, USA Vietnam 
Filbert Garcia, WWII