For many Memorial Day Weekend signifies the start of summer. However, far too often while enjoying the long weekend, we forget the true reason for the holiday on Monday. Memorial Day is a time to honor those that have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country while serving in the military. In 2000, Congress passed the “National Moment of Remembrance Act,” that asks Americans, wherever they are at 3:00 PM local time on Memorial Day, to pause for a duration of one minute to remember those who have died in military service to the United States. Please join us in this moment of silence to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including Mom’s great uncle, who went by the nickname, Buddy.
Great Uncle Buddy was a young man when he answered the call to serve during World War II, and rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant of the US Army Air Forces with the 577th Bomb Squadron of the 392nd Bomber Group. In 1943, his plane, the “Miss America,” was shot down over the North Sea, just 6 days shy of his 22nd birthday. Today his grave in a quiet cemetery in Massachusetts remains empty, because his body was never recovered. His name is also memorialized at the Cambridge American Cemetery in the United Kingdom, on the Wall of the Missing.
Buddy was an all American boy, who played baseball, was fascinated by planes, and intended to marry his high school sweetheart when he returned home. In recent months, as our Mom cleans out a home that has been in our family for generations, she is finding treasured mementoes from his childhood: Photographs, school assignments, newspaper clippings, his high school autograph book with sweet and silly messages from his friends about their hopes and dreams for the future; as well as local, state, and national certificates honoring the ultimate sacrifice he gave in the service of his country.
This Monday marks the 80th Memorial Day since Buddy’s passing. Throughout those years his parents, sisters, nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces, have gone to honor this empty grave of a fallen hero. We will never forget.
Please on Memorial Day, at 3:00 PM local time, join us in the National Moment of Remembrance, to honor ALL the brave men and women who who have given the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the military.
