Remember the Nameless Veterans

A long while ago, I came to a realization that veterans are like stones in a massive edifice. Without them and their sacrifices, some with limbs, others with their lives, we would have no wall called America.
There have been countless soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who simply followed orders, fought battles and won wars. Some were highly decorated, others got a medal or two, some were tortured, imprisoned, and until their last day, bore the horrors of their ordeals.
Most veterans, who regarded themselves fortunate to be alive after their war, were simply rewarded with a discharge certificate, a chance for a GI-bill paid college education or house, and the promise of a flag on their casket.
They asked no more of the nation they served, and the nation asked no more of them.
In April, during Easter break, my son, grandchildren, aged 10 and 6, and I visited Washington, D.C. It is one thing to see monuments and memorials on television, in the movies or in print, it is quite another thing to be there, reach out and touch those stone reminders of those who went before us.
On the long, slow trek from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, we passed the World War II Memorial. I had never seen the edifice in person, but had to think of those gents I know — and knew — whose war that was.
It was a balmy day, and my granddaughter felt compelled to snap some photos of the “New Jersey” section of the memorial. How many Garden State veterans froze in the Battle of the Bulge, sweated in stifling submarines chasing Axis ships, or suffered incurable mental scars in forced death marches in jungle heat?
Over to the left, as we got closer to the Lincoln Memorial, we could see the Korean War Memorial. There, 19 haunting stainless steel statues seem to eternally trudge through that bone-chilling cold in their own frozen hell where 1.5 million Americans of all services fought.
Up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial we went. It seemed Mr. Lincoln was staring at each one who made it to his pedestal. He looks on this sea of humanity before him, flanked by some of his immortal words there for the world to read and never forget.
After a respite for water after that long walk, we crossed the street, and into the Vietnam War era once again.
There was the trio of soldiers, walking on patrol toward the slender sloping memorial on which are engraved the names of 58,267 veterans.
We walked the pathway to Panel W-62. Emotion overtook me when I saw ROBERT C ALLEN engraved in white on black stone. I do not believe my grandchildren never saw me break down, which I could not help. A flood of emotions rekindled
as I relived fresh as yesterday, when I, a young sailor in radio school, learned from my crying mother, “Bobby was killed.”
The unknowing children asked what was wrong. I recounted how my cousin, a Marine lance corporal who had only served his nation from Dec. 22, 1967 until May 31, 1968, was killed in Quang Tri, South Vietnam, a ground casualty.
Retelling such a brief history, which is replayed many times at “The Wall,” brings the past to the present. It is no longer just a name from “ancient history” to these children of today. Each of those 58,267 names has a family, a history, a legacy known to them alone. All are part of a proud national heritage. Those names can be experienced in Washington or now Wildwood.
We can see the names of those loved ones, 23 from this county, gone too soon in defense of these children and countless millions just like them at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on Ocean and Burk avenues.
At such times as these, when the present meets a past we cannot fully explain, are hard pressed to relate anything meaningful, a song by Crosby Still Nash and Young “Teach Your Children” replays in my mind:
“You, who are on the road, Must have a code that you can live by, And so become yourself, Because the past is just a good bye.
“Teach your children well, Their father’s hell did slowly go by, And feed them on your dreams, The one they picked, the one you’ll know by.
“Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry. So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.”
Observe Memorial Day reflecting on nameless veterans who gave all and asked nothing for themselves. They are the ones who deserve accolades on this day set aside for remembrance.Vietnam War Memorial