I don’t know anyone who has died while serving in the military, but Memorial Day always makes me remember friends and family who served – and likely knew fellow soldiers who died.
My grandpa served in the Pacific theater in World War II and decades later still suffered from nightmares on those few occasions he would talk about it, for example the night he told my dad about his service when my parents were first dating in the 1960s. Grandpa showed me a photo album one sunny, summer afternoon in the 1980s…it had a red padded leather cover…and black and white pictures of the devastation to human life that front line war wreaks. I can only assume he had nightmares that night too. More than 30 years later, I still haven’t forgotten those images.