Memorial Day ≠ Veterans Day

If you follow me on social media, you might be familiar with my annual plea: Don’t thank me. Don’t honor me. Don’t make Memorial Day about ME!

Yes, I am a veteran, but I came home from my deployments. I’ve had the blessing of living my life, loving my family, and enjoying the precious liberty earned by the blood of those who did not. I’m not to be honored or remembered or even thanked this weekend. Memorial Day is not about me.

On Monday, a local politician to my area is hosting a “Memorial Day Ceremony IN HONOR OF ALL VETERANS” (emphasis mine). I’ve sent him a lengthy email explaining how inappropriate and, frankly, offensive that is to those of us who honor Memorial Day by vividly remembering the men and women who didn’t come home.

Personally, I spend most of Memorial Day remembering, grieving for and honoring the men and women whose hands I held and chests/foreheads I laid hands as they breathed their last during my time as the chaplain of the primary theater hospital at Balad Air Base, Iraq (I also honor my Great Uncle Mat who was killed in World War 2, but his face doesn’t flash through my mind quite as vividly as those I personally saw, touched, and lifted before God).

I know the well wishes and honors for all veterans are well intended. To those who didn’t serve or never experienced the trauma of war, it’s probably hard to understand why many of us are so adamant in pointing out the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. I get it. However, if you truly want show that you respect and honor those of us who came home, help us protect the sanctity of Memorial Day for those who did not. Thanks.