Memorial Day 2003

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is special to all who love freedom. It is a day set aside to remember the bravery, sense of duty, honor and ultimate sacrifice of those who have protected our freedom and those who do so today.

Do you remember the Big Band sound of the Glen Miller Orchestra? Can you remember the World War II tune “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else but Me?” The West Islip High School dance band often played it in the 60’s. We learned the music but not the lyrics. Play Glen Miller’s version today and listen to the lyrics. The male singer asks his girl friend to remain faithful while he’s away. She responds by asking him to remain faithful to her and not place a girl upon his knee while he is on foreign shores. They join in the reprise and promise not to sit under the old apple tree until you come marching home. The words are light-hearted emotions shared by many thousands who were separated by war.

Baseball was our favorite sport in my neighborhood in West Islip. We spent many childhood hours playing baseball and stickball. Some of the guys could really hit a baseball or a Spalding. We’d pretend we were our favorite baseball heroes. We learned to field the short hop and make the pivot for the double play at second base. We walked, talked and read about baseball. There was an illustration in the 1957 sport pages of Ted Williams trying to land a fish, which was inscribed “. 400 batting average.” Could he land that title again? And Mickey Mantle was fishing with him. Conversations were about how many home runs Ted might have hit if he had not served in WWII and rejoined the service to fly missions in the Korean War. After serving in two wars, Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957.

As kids growing up during the Cold War, we practiced air raid drills in elementary school through high school. The fear and threat was that communist Russia would launch an attack of intercontinental ballistic missiles or missiles with nuclear warheads. The theory was if the US matched the USSR, the threat of retaliation implied total destruction of life on earth. Therefore, no one would ever be foolish enough to “press the button.”

Some of the victims of the Cold War included men who died on the Scorpion, a nuclear submarine. One of those was Joe Miller from West Islip. Joe could hit a baseball a long way. We played pick up games, for example, Arcadia Drive vs. Roderick Road. If you played on Joe’s team, you’d anticipate him hitting a long beautiful arc, like Ted Williams. If you played against him, you’d hope you could run like Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle and catch his line drive. If you get a chance, stop at the intersection of Higbie Lane and Montauk Highway in West Islip. Look for a granite block with Joe’s name on it. Remember a kid who played baseball and became a member of the “silent service.”

Some volunteered and some were drafted and went to Viet Nam in the sixties and seventies. Others went into the National Guard. One who played stickball and baseball on Arcadia Drive wrestled for West Islip High School. Bill Richter was a scrapper with undefeatable spirit, who appeared in the state finals in the 98 lb class one year and the 105 lb class the next. As a Marine, Bill went to Viet Nam. During a patrol, the point man stepped on a land mine. Bill was injured, sent home and died a year later. His name does not appear on the Wall in Washington but we, who knew him, remember. Over 58,000 Americans died in VN.

My first night on a bunker near the perimeter of Long Bihn, a former rubber plantation, was in August 1971. It was cooler on top of the bunker than in it. Before dawn, there was movement on the nearby highway. As light pierced the dark sky, Vietnamese could be seen walking, carrying their children and belongings. They were refugees. Some had carts with wooden wheels drawn by water buffalo. I wondered if we had gone back in time 5,000 years? There were other nights and situations when fear gripped our squad. Men cried out to God, others for their mothers. And I wondered why a West Islip kid, who played baseball and stickball, was away from home, half way around the world.

Today, we remember those who perished on September 11, 2001. The attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center was an attack on civilization. When the WTC was attacked, we were shocked and could not comprehend the depth of evil, the evil that worships death and the subjugation of our consciousness to the destruction of existence. This evil is worse than anything we feared in Viet Nam. That initiation of force ended any thought of morality because we do not place moral sanction on murderers. Terrorists do not wish to live. Their morality is death. Death is their value system and their chosen goal. Today we are in a fight for freedom and our way of life. Paraphrasing John Galt’s speech in “Atlas Shrugged” written by Ayn Rand: “Reason, purpose and self-esteem are our values. Reason is man’s only tool. Purpose is the choice of happiness. Self-esteem is man’s certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living. Our morality is life while the terrorists’ is the antithesis.”

Remember the men and women of our armed services who are fighting this war against evil today. Understand their act of service for this country is to preserve our freedom and our choice to live. Let the world know that America stands for freedom for all people.