If Kanda Fletcher’s late father — a former prisoner of war during the Korean War— had been a military officer, he would have received full military honors when he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery last June.
Should you visit the village of Belleau, France, today you will find in their cemetery one grave graced by an American flag. Ernest Stricker is buried among the villagers. Each year the staff of the local military cemetery ensure that his grave is decorated. Stricker is the last American soldier to die in the battle of Belleau Wood.
Why are 20 veterans a day taking their own lives? That’s the question the Rev. Tom Davis has been asking since August
2015, when a magazine cover on veteran’s suicides grabbed his attention. After all, he thought, aren’t these the same men and women who fought so hard to stay alive during active duty, as Davis did during his combat service in Vietnam?
Why are 20 veterans a day taking their own lives? That’s the question the Rev. Tom Davis has been asking since August 2015, when a magazine cover on veterans’ suicides grabbed his attention. After all, he thought, aren’t these the same men and women who fought so hard to stay alive during active duty, as Davis did during his combat service in Vietnam?
Official Memorial Day observances in our nation date back to the Civil War era. The tradition of decorating graves of war dead in the spring dates back centuries. As our nation observes this Memorial Day, may we remember the over 1.2 million citizens who have given their lives in service to this nation.
“There are no atheists in foxholes” is a famous quote attributed to U.S. military chaplain William Thomas Cummings. I am not here to argue whether Father Cummings’s observation is true in all circumstances, but if it is even directionally correct—and since there are 1,281,900 people in active duty in the U.S. armed forces with an additional 801,200 people in seven reserve components, not to mention spouses and families—then there are conservatively millions of U.S. citizens whose spiritual health and well-being are entrusted to the ministry of military chaplains.
Town hard-hit by 9/11 deaths honors service members, veterans
Each fall for five years Westminster Presbyterian Church in Middletown, New Jersey, has assembled a memorable display on its Great Lawn. Beginning in 2012, the church’s Field of Flags has displayed one American flag for every service member killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. In 2015 the number was 6,841. When the congregation put out flags on Saturday, October 15, this year, the number of service persons killed had grown to 6,860.
For five years Westminster Presbyterian Church in Middletown, New Jersey has assembled a memorable display on its Great Lawn each fall. Beginning in 2012, the church’s “Field of Flags” display has contained one American flag for every service member killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
