Once known as Decoration Day, the concept of honoring Americans who died in military service on the last Monday in May “originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.” Many Americans visit the graves of fallen relatives on Memorial Day. Morgan Halgren described visiting the grave of her uncle, who was killed in action during World War II, during a trip to the Netherlands.
In a guest editorial for today’s Des Moines Register, Joy Neal Kidney described her family’s annual ritual of visiting Violet Hill Cemetery in Perry (Dallas County), to honor the memories of relatives including three uncles killed during World War II.
Lynda Waddington’s latest column in the Cedar Rapids Gazette called for offering “more than words” to the war dead and their surviving families.
Since Memorial Day weekend is also the unofficial beginning of summer, it’s a good time to share Mario Vittone’s must-read piece for recreational swimmers: “Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning.” Once a lifeguard at Valley View Aquatic Center in West Des Moines jumped in to help a child in trouble in the shallow pool where I was standing near my children. Although I could not have been more than fifteen feet away, I hadn’t noticed a thing.
This is an open thread: all topics welcome.
UPDATE: Added below a map prepared by the Legislative Services Agency, which shows the home towns of Iowans killed in military conflicts since in Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, or other locations.
2 Comments
How About the Living Veterans
I have had relatives who died from combat experiences. A great uncle who was a medical officer in WWI committed suicide a couple of years after the war. Another relative died in a hospital in France after a poison gas attack. In Vietnam, 2 cousins were wounded and another died in his 40’s from what I suspect was the result of Agent Orange.
But lets talk about the living today – those with PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury and Military Sexual Trauma. Iowa’s Governor and General Assembly traded the well being of these veterans — especially the Post-9/11 veterans — for the big commercial property tax break. That was funded in small part by the closure of the psychiatric wing at the Iowa Veterans Home and by the cancellation of plans for a facility that could have housed these wounded warriors and where they could have been given professional help. Federal law gives states specific responsibilities concerning long term care to these veterans that may be so severely crippled in the mind that they cannot live alone. But, thanks to Governor Branstad and the Iowa General Assembly, we have not met this responsibility. In fact, here in Iowa we have people that have been told directly that they cannot get into the Iowa Veterans Home because they are too young. And no one seems too upset about it. So when you drive by some of the homeless camps in Des Moines this summer think about these veterans that are falling through the cracks. I am much more concerned with helping these folks than putting out a few more extra flags on Memorial Day or making a few extra ceremonies to honor our fallen dead.
Bob Krause Mon 30 May 8:15 PM
Thanks...
Bob Krause, your work and attention to veterans is appreciated and was evident towards the end of Thursday’s debate.
zbert Mon 30 May 9:25 PM