We Remember: Memorial Day 2018 Part Two

I looked back over what I wrote yesterday and I must say that is not a model of entirely coherent speech. But I said at the beginning, twelve years ago, that I was not going to edit once I pushed the publish button (except for egregious spelling errors): I write this from the heart and my heart sometimes has to grope around for the right words. Word order is a secondary task.

Our second stop on Memorial Day was on Ft. Lewis. Last year we got our Gold Star Family ID cards that let us go on post without an escort or (further) paperwork but we had never actually used them. This time we drove right up to the main gate, showed our cards and were waved right on in. It was the least stressful entrance process that I've ever gone through at a military installation and I really appreciate that. When we lived in Maryland, I would go to Ft. Meade from time to time and going through the gate always left me shaky and a little tearful. The day I couldn't figure out how to raise the hood of my car was painful. Anyway, the experience at Ft. Lewis was light years better.

Thanks to Google maps, we drove right to the Memorial Park, which is a beautiful square block filled with memorials from the various Stryker Brigades. I think the one from Thomas's unit was the first created: we saw it in 2005 before it was moved to the park. We parked across the street and walked up to the stone. And OK, here is where I get hazy. There were a couple of guys standing around (later I found out they were not in Bravo Company and weren't part of the group I had kind of arranged to meet). There was a bunch of Army people in dress uniforms at one of the other memorials, obviously preparing for a ceremony. Richard and I basically stood and waited to be approached. And, in due time, Timothy arrived and walked up to greet us. One or two other guys showed up. We stood and they chatted about the deployment, about Thomas, about other guys they had lost. We speculated about the ceremony that was obviously going to be held (I realized later that I knew at least one of the families that attended). The men we were not meeting cracked open a couple of beers in memory of their friends and kept talking. Eventually it was time to go so we said goodbye and got in our car to head home.

We had left our flag flying at home the day before, contrary to etiquette which demands that you take in the flag in darkness (if the flag is lit up you can leave it out). We just hoped our solar lights had stayed bright through the night.