I’d like to share a very special Memorial Day with you.

In March of 1965 I was drafted into the U.S. Army. I spent March and April going through Basic Training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. After Basic I was sent for Intelligence Analyst (96B) training at the U.S. Army Intelligence School at Ft. Holabird in Baltimore, Maryland. I arrived at Ft. Holabird several weeks before my class started so I was assigned to the Post Detail Platoon.

On the Friday before Memorial Day about 30 members of the Detail Platoon were loaded onto a bus and driven to the Baltimore National Cemetery. Our duty that day was to place American flags in front of each tombstone. Each flag was to be placed one boot length in front of the marker. At that time there was probably 35,000 grave markers in the Cemetery. We started about 9 am and finished about 3 pm.

That day was a beautiful and sunny. The grass had been freshly cut the day before. The trees were green and bright with new leaves. Standing back and looking over the Cemetery it looked like the photos you see of military cemeteries in National Geographic.

The Sgt. in charge of the detail had disappeared for awhile and returned with a couple cases of ice-cold beer as his thanks to us. After everyone had gotten a beer someone suggested making a toast. So all 30 of us lined up in a straight line, held up our beer, and made a toast to our fallen Brothers and Sisters.

A day I will never forget.