A walk discloses - For Memorial Day 2016

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_memorialday.html

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_memorialday.html

 In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

~Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Memorial Day will soon be upon us. Flags will fly and and we will remember "the silence of our friends."

Paddy and I walked in the neighborhood cemetery noting this grave and that. I recognize so many of these last names Yes, I knew some of our permanent neighbors. But most are strangers.

The flags always draw my attention as do the many military stones - some from the Civil War, the Great War, Korea, Vietnam, and the current wars. Many served and lived to return home to family and friends; to die old men and women, having raised children and enjoyed careers. But we passed two graves where the dates and notations on the stones indicated these service men did not survive their service.

SGT Kleber L. Jones was a bombardier serving during World War II. I wonder as I research the records if he was shot down. Older records are not always clear. I searched again and found that he was part of a bombing group targeting Ijmuiden in Holland. Heavy flak and a midair collision resulted in the crash of 8 planes, while 2 were shot down by enemy fighters. Twenty-three of his comrades were reported KIA, 11 MIA, and 24 POWs. Two men are shown as "returned" and one POW "repatriated." Jones ended up as a prisoner of war and died while in captivity.

SGT Daniel K. Methvin was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas and was killed as a result of a grenade being thrown from a window of an Iraqi civilian hospital he was helping guard in Baqubah, Iraq. Also killed in the same attack were Pfc. Wilfredo Perez Jr., 24, of Norwalk, Conn., and Spc. Jonathan Paul Barnes, 21, of Anderson, Mo.

Daniel wanted to help guard a hospital in Iraq because of his love of children. The troops sometimes played with the young children, throwing a football around. Michelle Methvin says she fell in love with her husband in the seventh grade and finally got up the nerve to call him when she was 16. They have a 2-year-old son. Daniel was proud to be a Ranger, but he was first and foremost a family man. [From Find-a-grave listing].

Memorial Day is their day, theirs and that of their brothers and sisters at arms who died in the service of their country.

And we remember.

SGT Jones was in the Army Air Corps. He died as a prisoner of war in Stalag 9c. He was 28 years old.

SGT Daniel K. Methvin, killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was 22 years old.

SGT Methvin's grave.

For love of country they accepted death.

~James A. Garfield

A few more words:

May 29, 2016

I went out to visit the graves of SGT Methvin and SGT Jones to make sure flags were placed and to add flowers (inspired by a Vietnam Veteran who has challenged people to say thanks). Because I had extra flags I looked for a military grave or two before I left the cemetery.

I found James Henry Messer. Messer was a Motor Machinist Mate First Class in the United States Navy and died during the battle of Leyte Gulf. He was the son of Oscar and Muriel Hemphill Messer.  He had an older sister, Nelda, and a younger brother, Robert. 

James was awarded the Purple Heart, posthumously.