It’s for the heroes who died — for the people who were killed in combat theatres defending the freedoms in the United States of American.
It is MEMORIAL Day, after all, and that is a point Air Force veteran and Clearview resident Scott Mumper has made with friends and family this past week on social media. The country, in its fight for freedom in all wars and conflicts since the Revolutionary War, has lost more than 1.4 million men and women.
Most recently, the wars on terror in the Middle East have claimed more than 8,000 lives in Afghanistan and Iraq and have caused thousands more to be permanently disabled for a multitude of reasons. Our American combat veterans have heard sounds, witnessed incidents, and perhaps performed actions WE can’t imagine, and those experiences changed them. But they came home while some of their comrades did not.
“We should honor our veterans every day, and I am not just saying that because I am a veteran,” Mumper said. “But it does seem over the years that we as a population have blended the holidays honoring our military members. Memorial Day is far different than any of the others.
“This area has had so many people serve in the military, and there were those who didn’t come home the way their families wanted them to,” he continued. “I have posted on Facebook several times over the last week just trying to remind people what Memorial Day is about. It’s about the lives we lost. We have to keep those people in our minds and thank them for giving that ultimate sacrifice.”
Lost Friends and Family
63,000. 405,000. 36,000. 58,000. 8,000.
Since World War I.
Men. Women. And their Gold Star families. Thanks to the initiative created and spearheaded by Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams, Gold Star Memorial Monuments now stand in Wheeling and Moundsville so residents can pay tribute to those killed in action.
Williams often tells a story when dedicating these memorials about when his efforts initially focused on the mothers of those soldiers, but following a speech he made in southern West Virginia several years ago, only one person remained seated while the rest of the crowd had departed the auditorium.
“I walked up to the person,” Williams recalls while telling the tale, “and I asked if something was wrong. That’s when the man removed his hands from his face and said to me, ‘Fathers cry too.’ That’s when it all changed for me.”
Mumper concurs.
“I’ve lost friends, and those are the people I will be thinking about this weekend,” he said. “I thank my veteran friends every time I see them, and they return the favor, but all of us are thinking about our lost friends, not about our service in the military. We came home. They didn’t, at least not the way they wanted to.
“It’s a long weekend for people to have fun,” he added. “I just hope that most of the people out there at least take a moment and recognize the people who died for the freedoms we have now. They did. They made that sacrifice And it cost them their lives. They are the people we honor on Memorial Day because Memorial Day is about the ultimate sacrifice.”
