We are now three years from the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the inglorious “end” of the Global War on Terror that started on Sept. 11, 2001. Of course, since then the U.S. Navy has been involved in an intense Red Sea missile duel with Iran’s proxy Houthi jihadis in Yemen, along with Air Force aircraft based in the Middle East. Significant Special Forces and troops supporting them are still engaged on the ground in Syria and elsewhere. Even since the beginning of this year, four U.S. Army soldiers died in Eastern Europe during military exercises undertaken to deter further Russian aggression.
While those of us who pay attention to the news occasionally hear of these engagements and losses, amongst the backdrop of economic turmoil, tariffs, and the wars in Ukraine and Israel, very few of us feel that we in America are at “war” right now.
As at the end of any major war in our shared past, “when the trumpets fade,” the American people rightly go back to going about their lives, the raw emotions of daily loss of lives of young Americans in combat, occasionally hitting home directly or through neighbors and friends, retreats from public memory and concern. At the same time, we here in Osceola County recently have faithfully observed the sacrifices of our “always” young men and women by hosting the Vietnam Memorial Wall that Heals at the Kissimmee Gateway Airport, Vietnam Veterans Day, and the WW II Bataan Death March, both at memorials at Kissimmee’s Lakefront Park.
I am always heartened when I see some people using the park during those times, often with their children, unaware of the occasion, who stop, pay their respects, and usually inquire as to the specifics of the observance. They all go away having learned or relearned, a disquieting chapter of our history, maybe remembering a family member who served in the military in some capacity. Perhaps a spark is lit in a child’s heart that will grow into realizing that some of us must make the ultimate sacrifice at times for the greater good of humanity.
Let that spirit guide a sober, reflective remembrance of those who sacrificed this Memorial Day, with a special emphasis on those we have recently been lost even though we are not now “at war.”
Terry Lloyd is a military veteran and a freelance contributor to the News-Gazette.
