Memorial Day and/or Decoration Day as it is known in our area, is a post-Civil War holiday originally used to pray over the graves of those lost in the Civil War. After World War I it became a national holiday to remember all those who were killed in war.
The day of honoring those passed in our cemeteries varies but often centers around Mother’s Day and continues thru Memorial Day.
While it is fitting to honor all those passed, those who sacrificed for us during war are the real reason for Memorial Day.
General George Patton said, “Let us not mourn that such men died, but rejoice that such men lived.”
That is a statement that should give us all pause as we enter into the time of remembrance. The 80th Anniversary of D-Day is also approaching, and our thoughts go this time of year, to those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that others might live free.
Any person who has served will tell you they are proud of their own service but that the real heroes are those who never came home. Any family that has made that sacrifice knows how difficult it is to lose a loved one, even if that death is an honorable and noble one.
Blount County’s heroes are remembered on our courthouse lawn. It is a legacy for which we should all be proud and humbled. The numbers say it all.
In the War of 1812 two Blount County soldiers were lost. In the Mexican War two were lost. The Civil War took the lives of 63 local men and the Spanish American War five. In World War I, 47 local men died. World War II took 152 of our local young men. In Korea, another 14 were lost. The conflict in Vietnam took 34. In recent times, the Persian Gulf War took two and the War on Terror took three.
That is a total of 324 men, who are documented to have been killed in service of their country from Blount County. Some of those are missing in action, their bodies never returned or recovered, an even greater tragedy for the families.
I urge you to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice by visiting the Blount County War Dead Monument on the lawn of the courthouse and area cemeteries and memorials. It is appropriate to remember and honor them with a flag on their grave or memorial.
Each of these men had a family, parents, brothers, sisters, neighbors, and friends. Some had wives and children. Most were young, in the prime of their lives, cut short by their service to their country.
I owe my own existence to a man I have never met. Ernie Pugh of Cumberland County Tennessee saved my Dad’s life by sacrificing his own life on a sunken road outside St. Lo, France in July of 1944. Ernie was awarded the Silver Star for his bravery, but he never got to return home to his wife, to have his own children. His mother was never to see her son again, nor was he able to leave his own legacy with descendants. If not for Ernie, my Dad would never have come home to marry and have his own family. Ernie’s sacrifice became generational, and for me personal.
In the coming weeks, my column will focus on some of those men who made the sacrifice, their stories, and their legacies. We owe all that we have to them. Please contact me if you know the stories of these local young men who sacrificed all to freedom.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the following statement on December 15, 1941, “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”
It is the time of year to remember.
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