I have been seeing alot written here and on Facebook about how this weekend is not the annual rite of passage to honor your new found love of charcoal and smoked foods. All of my brothers here have done a marvelous job of telling the story of Memorial Day and how it means different things to us and to others, but to me, it IS about the barbecue. Is there anyone here that wouldn't want to have a barbecue where Basil Plumley, John Basilone, Gary Gordon, Randy Shugart, Hal Moore, Matt Ridgeway, James Stockdale or Michael Murphy all showed up? All of them would make a "who's who" list of men I would be honored to sit around my firepit and pass out cheeseburgers and ribs off of my grill to in those red drive thru baskets you can still get at old school burger joints as we share cheap cold beer and ask who brought the POG wearing the "HALO" T-Shirt. Later on over mouthfuls of Mrs. Deebow's pretzel rolls that I am using for sliders and the last of the bleu cheese potato salad, we could spend our time trying not to choke as we tell one hilarious war story after another; all starting with the phrase "and there we were...." Then, after the sun went down, and we sat quietly around a fire as warriors are apt to do with their cigars and their libations; we would toast our lost comrades and commiserate on what would have been, had it not been for that fateful day; and we would do as General Patton said. We would thank God that men of their character had lived at all. I would feel even more blessed that those men made the choice of a life spent defending something they felt deeply about. I can think of no better way to honor men like SGM Basil Plumley, Manila John Basilone, MSG Gary Gordon, MSG Randy Shugart, Col. Hal Moore, Gen. Matt Ridgeway, Adm. James Stockdale or Lt. Michael Murphy, Sergeant Earl Werner, Maj. Larry Bauguess, Sergeant Bernard Deghand and the countless many more names just like them who now stand eternal guard in the gardens of stone around the world than to drink, eat, make merry and live the freedom that they have worked so hard to give me. I toast my freedom in your honor and I live everyday attempting to suck the very marrow out of the freedom for which you have paid so dearly. Thank you sirs; although saying that just seems as if it isn't enough. But thank you just the same.
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Posted
May 25 2013, 03:32 PM
by
BLACKFIVE