Memorial Day May 2013 We Buried Another Veteran Today

By Major Van Harl USAF Ret

Veteran Tributes
Memorial Day 27 May 2013 We Buried Another Veteran Today
AmmoLand Gun News
AmmoLand Gun News

Wisconsin –-(Ammoland.com)-  We buried another veteran today.
He went to his God, from us, he went away.
This one was young, in the prime of his life.
He left twin children and a very courageous wife.

It wasn’t a bullet, a plane crash or a bomb.
It was cancer, and he just finally, could not hold on.
He fought “it” like a military campaign.
But the time came to surrender, to end his earthly pain.

He knew he would be fine in the presence of his Lord.
But what about his twins, those children he adored?
Will they grow strong and at “life” win.
Please God, let them always remember him.

We buried another veteran today.
It seems, all my life, it has happened this way.
From my uncles of the WW II-time frame.
To the military friends, Vietnam would claim.

For me the number of dead, is always on the rise.
When I get a call another veteran is gone, it is never really a surprise.
From lost sub-mariners, in early days of my life.
To the forever gone, military-medical friends of my veteran wife.

I lost a Korean War veteran friend this year, to a crashed airplane.
I lost a Gulf War friend to cancer, a difference in their age, but still that pain.
I lost an Uncle to cancer who did Korea with the Navy, steaming off shores.
I lost my father-in-law who fought in Korea, from a “fox-hole” in the
frozen outdoors.

We buried another Veteran today.
It seems in all my family’s generations, it happens this way.
From my Revolutionary War Grandfathers who started this sad, but needed trend.
To the family members on both sides in 1861, who just would not bend.

Some of my family lived a long and happy life, after “their” war.
They died of old age in their bed, safe-behind a locked door.
They died in battle, buried where they fell.
They died years later, carrying emotional scars, in their own personal hell.

My family is no different than thousands who met our Nation’s call.
They rose to the demands of this country and some gave their “all“.
We have to continue doing this, to make America free.
But, it’s that Veteran’s twin-little children that keeps worrying me.

We buried another Veteran today.
It seems all my life it continues this way.
Now my only child is nine and we reside on a military installation.
My wife and I truly want her to live safe, in a free nation.

But what happens, when it is her-generation’s turn to make a stand.
Do we lose our only child in some forsaken-foreign land?
Does she play it safe, stay home and say “that’s boy’s stuff”.
Or does she join like her mother and go right into the ruff.

She has to be that one Veteran I don’t see, make that final “call“.
Let me go before her, let me first give this country my fighting “all“.
Maybe if I go “out-there” and make my final stand.
She can stay safe-at-home, in this wonderful free land.

WE BURIED ANOTHER VETERAN TODAY

Major Van Harl, USAF Ret.
[email protected]

About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:
Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret. , is a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. Now retired, these days he enjoys camping, traveling, volunteering with the Girl Scouts and writing. [email protected]

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Johnny Nightrider

I was 3 years old when my Father and Mother brought me to the U.S.A. I was born in 11/1962.My Father and I we’re both born in Denmark and my Father wanted us to all have a better life in America.We lived in New York than Venice,California,and then Newhall,California.I remember getting Boys Life magazines and ordering the bracelets that you bent on your wrist that had a U.S. soldier Missing in Action on it.Also getting the bumper stickers that said MIA/only Hanoi knows.My friends and I had para-troopers that you shot up into the air with sling shots.The Vietnam War… Read more »

5 War Veteran

This tears at my heart. How many brothers have I laid to rest? How many before it’s my time?

I miss their camaraderie, their smiles and their laughter.

I thank my brothers for their service and I honor their loss almost every day.

There is no greater honor than giving ones life in the service of their people.

Note, I did not say government. That time has passed.

The Mad Man

Beautifully put!
I live in a town that once used to be a military town and now this is NO sign that the military was even here. Buried in the dust.
I am a proud veteran who wants to remind other vets what this days means besides barbeques and the celebration of a day off from work. The postings I have put here in my local town are ignored and I share grief that people just have lost focus.