Memorial Day 2023

Today is the 155th observance of Memorial Day.

Since it is Monday this extended weekend and this day in particular for some reason is often  lost on most.

We as a National have spent much of this past weekend that was full of boating, family picnics, beer drinking, partying til dawn, a 3 day weekend on the water, at the mountains or at the beach, with a good dose of NASCAR's Coca Cola 600 thrown in to kick off the un-official Official start of Summer and didn't give the reason for this 3 day weekend a thought.

So in in case you missed the significance it is indeed, Memorial Day. 

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who have died while serving in the United States armed forces.

A number of years ago Mrs. Cedar and I spent the last weekend of May on the West Coast. 

Three fun filled days of checking out the San Francisco area; Napa Valley, Monterrey and the former home of John Steinbeck, a Giants baseball game at the old Candlestick Park and the Golden Gate Bridge. 

That Monday we stumbled into The Presidio and the vast military cemetery there on what just happened to be Memorial Day.

The fact is I had forgotten what day it was, until I looked across a sea of stars and stripes. They have been honoring Memorial Day at the Presidio for 155 years. 

While it is not Arlington National Cemetery, it is still vast and stunningly beautiful. 

The late afternoon fading light of a California sunset is a surreal backdrop to the endless rows of headstones that mark the graves of American Soldiers. 

There are 34 Medal of Honor recipients in the San Francisco National Cemetery, a somber reminder of the price we have paid as a nation.

The unexpected find, and that moment of realization that without such days, we take far too much for granted, has stayed with me for more than two decades. 

In the words of World War II journalist Ernie Pyle quoting a general walking among a battle field littered with bodies of Soldiers  "Brave Men, Brave Men".

Without whom this day of remembrance would not be necessary.