MEMORIAL DAY 2021, WASHINGTON PARK, PORTLAND OREGON

Memorial Day is for the kids, the enlisted guys, the drafted guys, the FNG who followed orders.

It’s for the professional soldiers who learned the job and did the work.

Sergeant Tennyson said it with, “Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die.”

Take that hill, cross that river, crawl in that tunnel.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

That’s what soldiers do.

Sometimes they do it and no one gets hurt. Other times they die.

They followed orders and died.

After training and conditioning and preparation, they die.

They go to war and die.

They came from towns like Coquille, Oregon.

Towns no one has heard of or care about sent soldiers to die, towns like Tigard and Detroit, Oregon.

Coos Bay and North Bend and towns like them across America sent soldiers to die.

Vietnam Memorial Washington Park

The roll call for names of the fallen ring out from the cold black stone.

Saying their names, the names from the Sixties and Seventies, is a reminder that too often falls on deaf ears.

“Memorial Day is for guys in the EM Club.”

What’s that?

“Enlisted Man’s Club.”

Have you ever been to one?

“I’ve been to a few, but I’m of a ‘drinking beer in the PX’ kind of guy.”

Was it really a club?

“Sure, there was music and dancing.”

Sounds fun.

“It’s where older enlisted men hit on new women on base.”

But the music and dancing sounds normal.

“There’s nothing normal about it. Authority sergeants mixing with students and dancing the Bump.”

What’s the Bump?

“For the young women it was a dance step to shake their booty and bump hips with their dance partners.”

Dance floor fun.

“Or it was a signal to some of the more aggressive Sergeants to think they were rounding third base and heading for home.”

What?

“That didn’t happen in the OC.”

OC?

“Officer’s Club.”

They didn’t dance the Bump?

“I don’t know, I’ve never been in one. A Captain told me the OC was where the junior officers introduced their wives to commanding officers to help their career.”

What’s that supposed to mean?

“Some of them got promoted before others.”

The Career Move For Memorial Day

That’s how officers get promoted?

“Promotion depends on which boxes are checked. One of the requirements for promotion used to be a combat command.”

To show leadership?

“Stories I’ve heard told of hot shots just out of West Point, or ninety day wonders out of Officer Candidate School, who went to Vietnam to win the war and become a general.”

It happens that fast?

“No, but these butter bars showed up with all the answers, while some of the men in their command were on a second or third tour. The shared information didn’t always agree.”

And you know this how?

“Guys were leaving the military after Vietnam, but those who stayed worked to fix the problems. I met them in my clinic where they got medical checks on their way to new assignments.”

And they told you this?

“It was a new era. The Vietnam Era was over.”

Oh?

“The All-volunteer Army was in the early stages. I was the future and they weren’t my commanding officer. Some of them were chatty.”

What happened when new officers showed up to command seasoned troops?

“If they listened, they gained experience. If they didn’t listen, they got people killed. If they refused to listen? Have you heard of the word ‘frag?'”

No, but it doesn’t sound good.

“There are rumors that some officers died because they were bad leaders with little regard for their men they commanded.”

How long did their command last?

“Long enough to get the combat command box checked and move on to the next career building challenge while their men stayed in the war.”

That doesn’t sound right.

“Have your heard of the term REMF?”

No.

“That was my group, or would have been. Have heard of the term SNAFU?”

No.

“That was the environment soldiers went into.”

Are you making this up?

“No, and that’s why I think of the enlisted guys, the draftees and volunteers, on Memorial Day.”

Because they followed orders?

“That, and some of them died following orders.”

What about officers?

“They gave the orders.”

That’s so sad. They never got to meet the love of their life, hold their baby, say good bye to their moms and dads, hold their grand baby. It’s so unfair.

“It’s Memorial Day. I think you’re getting it.”

All of these names.

“All of them and more.”

More?

“More.”

Why do we do this?