Memorial Day

My brother (that's him showing off his haircut) is an Army officer currently on his second deployment to Iraq. He sent me a few Memorial Day quotes in an email this morning that I thought I would share with you.

The first is the "Kohima Epitaph" which according to my brother's message "appears on a monument erected at the British military cemetery at Kohima, Assam, India, in memory of those who died in World War II's largest Asian land battle near there in 1944." Here it is:

Tell them of us and say,
For their tomorrows,
We gave our today.

The other I wanted to share is taken from a letter I have seen quoted several times before. It was written by President Abraham Lincoln to a Mrs. Bixby of Boston during the Civil War.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

I cannot be nearly as eloquent, but I would like to offer my own thanks to everyone who has died defending our nation. Our country honors your sacrifice and it is my fervent prayer that no more will be called to pay that price, though I sadly fear that will not be the case. Thanks for the thoughts, o' brother of mine. Stay safe!