Roll Call

"Guest Post"

By: Leigh McLeroy

http://www.leighmcleroy.com/

Remember.

You may have a busy day. Me too. But today, if you look, you'll see flags flying at half staff wherever you live and when you do...remember.

Today is Veteran's Day.

Today American men and women around the world who have served in our nation's armed forces will no doubt remember their days as soldiers. And those who still serve will do they work they do each day, some of them remembering, too, their own dead comrades and perhaps even uncles, aunts, parents and grandparents who served before them.

Today in my city a local car wash chain is offering free car washes to any veteran who asks for one. When a reporter asked if vets would be asked to prove their status, he said no. To ask for proof from a soldier who says he served would be an insult, he said, and as for anyone brash enough to boast a role he never played, well they should be ashamed.

Today 13 Navajo code talkers -- whose created, secret language helped the U.S. prevail in the Pacific in World War II -- will gather in New York to take part in ceremonies honoring their 500-man unit. Fewer than 50 of them remain. Even when their code became declassified in 1969, they refused to break their orders to secrecy.

Yesterday I watched as 13 soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, were eulogized and honored by their peers: with silence, with prayer, with hymns, and with gunfire. Thirteen battlefied crosses lined side by side paid tribute to soldiers fallen in the line of duty. A helmet to signify the soldier. An inverted rifle to signal an interruption in service. Combat boots to signify the final march of the last battle. All of it signifying uncommon and complete sacrifice.

Then at the end of the service, roll call. And silence where words should have been. At the end loved ones filed by the 13 crosses, and I cried as I watched widows and parents reach out to touch photographs of the soldier they lost. Each family was accompanied by another soldier. Some of them stood silently, and some reached out in support when knees buckled and shoulders shook.

This is where I'm supposed to sum everything up for you in a neat little package. I can't. The images are still swimming in my mind, and all I feel is...grateful. To be alive. To be loved. To live in America. To be the recipient of the blessings of years of sacrifice.

Remember.
And if you can, say thank you. We're all here on someone else's shoulders.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinnners, Christ died for us.
(Romans 8:6-8)

©Leigh McLeroy, 2009