Memorial Day---I Love You Dad

Every year on Memorial Day I have always made it a special point to talk about my father. My father who was killed in Vietnam when I was an infant. A father who I never met, and have no memory of. I almost feel like he belongs to someone or something else. When I was growing up every year on Memorial Day our family was always asked to participate in Memorial Day activities. It was always something we did and we were so proud. I honestly had never met another person that had lost anyone in a war. I was an oddity. We actually never talked about it and it really only came up around Memorial Day. I always had such a great sense of loss, not only for losing my father when I was an infant but for losing him is such a way that was so abstract to most kids my own age that no one really understood. So fast forward many years later and the current wars, Iraq and Afghanistan people started to pay attention, a whole new generation and a whole lot more people to remember. Now I didn't only have a father to remember on this day but friends, and sons of friends. And now there is no shortage of people who speak at and attend Memorial Day events. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. So please take a moment this weekend and remember all those who sacrificed for us, who gave all. Its not a lot to ask, at least I don't think so. And Daddy, I have never stopped thinking about you, you were my first hero, and I know you are in good company.
I love you.