On this Memorial Day weekend, we pause to remember and give thanks for the brave men and women who have given their lives that you and I might live in freedom.

It seems that over the years, this day has lost much of its meaning. Memorial Day has become a time for barbecues with little thought for those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.

When I was growing up, on Memorial Day we would drive to Yates City to place flowers on the graves of family members buried there. We always got there in time to take part in the service led by the American Legion. I remember being moved by hearing taps played and then echoed from the hill on the far side of the cemetery. It was a time of pausing to remember and give thanks for those who died defending our freedom.

President Ronald Regan in his remarks at the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1985, said “It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their county, for us. All we can do is remember.”

America’s fallen heroes are legion. From the start of the American Revolution to the end of WWI 644,000 gave their lives. By the time WWII ended, another 406,000 men and women had perished. Since then, another 174,000 have fallen. Together, more than 1. 5 million men and women have given their lives in defense of our freedom.

That’s overwhelming! A dramatic sacrifice! A great and wonderful gift! I’ll never forget the day I really felt the impact of those numbers. The traveling version of the Vietnam Memorial came to Davenport, the same one that later was here in Kewanee. It was an incredible experience to slowly, reverently approach the stark black wall… to see spread out before me the names of 58,000 brave men and women who gave their lives in the steaming jungles of Vietnam while at home their noble sacrifice was looked upon as foolishness and shame.

I wept at the sight of the names of my classmates who had died in that far away place. It was a sobering, moving experience. Flowers, photographs, letters and countless other mementos lined the walkway in front of the wall. There was a hushed and holy air about that place. As I walked away, my eyes were repeatedly drawn back over my shoulder for yet another look. So many of my peers, 58,000, gave their lives while I waited safely at home! I am still awestruck by the magnitude of their gift!

During the Vietnam war Kewanee lost 11 young men: Lance Corporal E-3 James Werderman. Specialist 4 Allan Benson, Corporal Donald Jones, First Lieutenant Marshall Price, Lance Corporal James Verhelst, Private First Class Dan Bryan, Private First Class Charles Mitchell, Sergeant Martin Rapczak, First Lieutenant Alan DeCraene, Captain Warren Orr, Jr. and Hospitalman Rodney Rogers.

As we prepare to celebrate our 60th high school reunion, I think of all that they missed…marriage, parenthood, becoming a grandparent…career success, vacations, graduations, weddings, birthday parties…the myriads of life experiences. Because of their sacrifice I get to enjoy so much.

It all hit home again on February 24, 2009, when Sergeant Schuyler Patch, the son of my former student, was killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He was only 25 years old. I remember the eerie silence of sorrowful respect as I sat in a packed Wethersfield gym waiting for the governor to arrive so that his funeral could begin.

His sister, Amber, helps us remember his sacrifice with the annual toy drive for area children. Such a tribute to Schuyler’s sacrifice!

At Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, it has been our practice to have a display in our sanctuary of the service personnel for whom we pray each week. I’ll never forget Father’s Day 2009. I was in the church basement when Staff Sergeant Paul Smith’s father-in-law came down the stairs carrying his picture, saying “We don’t have to pray for him anymore. He was killed June 19 in Kandahar.”

The losses are real! People we knew and loved. On Memorial Day you and I need to pause to remember, to give thanks to God for the lives of these men that we knew and all the men and women through the ages who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We give thanks for their dramatic sacrifice, their overwhelming gift of love! As we read in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

In India there is a cemetery where the bodies of American soldiers are buried. Over the entrance to the cemetery are these words: “Tell Them We Gave Our Todays for Their Tomorrows.” Let’s never forget that our tomorrows were bought with a price. Someone had to pay with their lives, so that we might be free today. There is no way we can sufficiently say, “Thank you.”

Being overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all…the dramatic sacrifice. the amazing gift of love…that’s what we as Christians experience in the promise of eternal life…God’s overwhelming, incredible, dramatic, sacrificial love! God’s love that promises, “Because I live, you also will live.” Our lives were bought with a price on the cross of Calvary!

What a gift! Memorial Day is about pausing to experience, to feel the enormity of it all…all the brave men and women who have served and continue to serve to defend our freedom…all those who unselfishly gave their lives that you and I might enjoy the life we live…and our amazing Savior who lovingly spilled out His own blood that we might have eternal life.

Remembering with gratitude,

Your sister in Christ,
Linnea Gustafson

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.