As we celebrte Memorial Day please I ask that we take a moment to stop and think about what it really means. Look around and take the opportunity to explain to our younger generations the real meaning of Memorial Day. We have the holiday, the celebrations, the Indy 500, etc. because of all the brave people who have served, continue to serve and will bless our freedom with their service in the future.
The following was excerpted from the Bethlehem Rotary club’s bulletin from last year. It is real, very close to home and warrants revisiting.
The program topic was one that Rotarian, Bob Weed, does not like to talk about. If that’s how he feels, you might wonder why he does talk about it. It’s because the Korean War is often classified as the ‘forgotten war’ and Bob never wants others to forget about it. During the 3-year war, 1,789,000 young people served in the Korean War. Of those million plus Americans, 36,574 were killed in action and another 103,284 were wounded in action. The New York Times aptly referred to the Korean War as World War 2.5.
July 17, 1953 will be forever etched in Bob’s mind. It was what he described as the ‘night from hell’ when a Chinese mortar round landed too close to him. Although he was somewhat protected by his flak jacket, his arms and legs were severely injured by shrapnel. He was first taken to a MASH unit to be stabilized and quickly flown out to the USS Repose for further care. He was eventually transferred to a naval hospital in Japan where he was operated on 7 times in 7 months. Bob will be forever grateful to the Naval Chaplain and the Navy Medical Service Corp for all they did to help get him back on his feet.
Bob left us with two important messages:
- How very blessed we are in the US for our military – past, present and future. They deserve the highest regard from all of us.
- Those who served or are serving in the US military are the backbone of America. May God bless our military and the United States of America – the greatest country in the world.
Thank you, Bob, for reminding us of what a great country we live in and for your personal sacrifice to our country.
God Bless America!
