Memorial Day: Remembering The Service Of The Fallen

Posted by Richard on May 11, 2021

On Memorial Day, we take time to honor the ultimate sacrifice made by those who fought for our country.
Many of those who died in the service of our country are known to us personally. They were our sons, our fathers, our uncles, aunts, or cousins, or they were our friends.
The heroes of wars long past are not forgotten. Veterans groups walk the old graveyards to place flags on the tombstones of those who died in battles long past, but still remembered. Their great sacrifices and honorable service helped our country become the nation it is today. We can never forget.
Many of their names are on tombstones in our own country and in cemeteries across the globe.
Some cannot be named specifically, and they are honored in a special way: at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
It is guarded by faithful sentinels night and day.

The importance of this duty is expressed in the “Sentinel’s Creed”:

My dedication to this sacred duty is total and wholehearted. In the responsibility bestowed on me, never will I falter. And with dignity and perseverance my standard will remain perfection.
Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements, I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect, his bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well-meaning crowds by day, alone in the thoughtful peace of night, this soldier will in honored Glory rest under my eternal vigilance.

— Sentinel’s Creed of the Guard of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.