As a former Marine, Memorial Day has a great deal of meaning to me.

It is a time for me to reflect upon fallen comrades and comrades-at-arms, who will be forever young in my mind. It is a time when I reflect on my father, a deceased veteran of the Army Medical Corps, who served during World War II and Korea. It is a time when those in our military are on my mind and in my prayers.

Many of us have plans for family outings, picnics, and other activities. I see it as right and fitting to do those things on Memorial Day. The people who this day commemorates made their sacrifice for those things to go on and gave up enjoying those things for themselves.

I ask that in your busy day that y ou hug your family for those that can no longer hug theirs. Remember those that have passed the great veil and hold precious the freedoms that they preserved for you. Exercise those freedoms as often as you can for those who paid the ultimate price for them and who are now stiff and cold.

Take a moment in the rain or sun, in the brightness of the day or in the dark of the night, and say a prayer for those who stand watch over those freedoms today.

Semper Fi