By Semperpapa
A year has gone by already since the last Memorial Day. Time flies.
A year ago, we were celebrating the return home of our Marine from Afghanistan and we were finally able to catch a breath after being on edge for a long seven months.
The true meaning of Memorial Day has never escaped me, ever since I arrived on American soil in 1979. It was always a somber celebration for me, as I understood the deep significance of this day. No, it is not the attractive sales or the long weekend or the beginning of the Summer season, but a much more important reason for pondering, reflecting and understanding the sacrifices that those who paid the ultimate price in the service of our Nation for our freedom have made since the inception of this socio-political experiment called America. And it is also the day when we pause, or at least we should, to support and pray for the thousands of Gold Star families that live everyday the painful void left by their fallen loved ones.
Memorial Day was officially designated as such by Gen. John Logan in 1868. Logan, who was the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, decreed that May 20 would be the day when the graves of soldiers fallen in battle would be decorated. In the first celebration as Memorial Day, May 30, 1868, flowers were placed on the graves of fallen Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.
The day calls for a time of reflection upon the memory of those who gave their lives in the protection of the Nation while wearing the uniform of our Armed Forces. It is the time of realization of what millions of men and women gave up in the defense of our country.
The most appropriate way to celebrate such day is to pay a visit to your local National Cemetery. I do so at the Riverside National Cemetery, where many of the fallen I had the honor to escort as a Patriot Guard Rider, have found their last resting place. I still remember many of their names.
In April 2006, I had the fortune of being in Washington D.C. and was able to get a glance of Arlington Cemetery. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Cemetery on the only day we were there, the gates were closing and I was not able to see the Tomb of the Unknown or much of the Cemetery, but what I saw, just rows of very poignant headstones, was enough to leave me with a somber sense of gratitude for those whose sacrifice granted me the right to enjoy my beautiful country.
When I visit Riverside National Cemetery on Memorial Day, I have some specific places I prefer to go to. One of them, this year, is very new.
It is the site of U.S.M.C. LCpl. Rick Centanni. Rick was killed on 24 March 2010 while on patrol in the Helmand Province of Southern Afghanistan. He was the driver of an LAV (Light Armored Vehicle) of the 4th LAR (Light Armor Reconnaissance Battalion, based in Camp Pendleton, California. He was just days shy of his 20th birthday.
The vehicle Rick was driving also carried the Battalion Sgt. Major Robert Cottle. The vehicle hit an IED and both Rick and Robert were killed instantly.
Sgt.Maj. Robert Cottle (left) and LCpl. Rick Centanni
Helmand Province, Afghanistan
Rick returned home to a hero's welcome, thousands of citizens from his hometown Yorba Linda, California, lining the streets as the procession of family, friends, police officers from both Santa Ana Police Department (Rick's father Jon is a Sargent for that agency) and LAPD (SgtMaj Cottle was a SWAT officer there) and hundreds of Patriot Guard Riders, honored the price of freedom that this young man, not even old enough to buy a beer, had paid.
The death of Rick Centanni was a hard blow for me and my family also, even if I never met him, as Rick is a good friend of my son, who was still finishing up his deployment in the barren sands of Afghanistan. My son had stood with many of his Marine brothers in honor of Rick as his remains left COP Payne for the last journey home, and I felt an even greater connection with my boy: he was there at the beginning of Rick's final voyage home and I stood to honor him at the end of it.
Of all the 60+ "missions" I attended as a Patriot Guard, this was the most emotional, even though every one of them leaves a definite void in my heart.
For one thing, Rick was a friend of my son, so I could imagine the pain he and his Marine brothers were feeling at that time. I could only imagine, as having never served in the Military I do not have first hand knowledge of the bond these men have with each other.
Moreover, the death of Centanni and Cottle had hit very close to home, as I was battling the anxiety on knowing that my own son was still there.
Thankfully, my son and his unit returned home on 27 May 2010, and with them also returned an immense relief in our family. We were breathing again.
Semper Fidelis, Rick!
I went to visit the burial site of Rick Centanni just last December, in occasion of the annual Wreaths Across America celebration, and I had the honor to personally place the wreath dedicated to Rick on his grave.
This Memorial Day I will go see Rick once again, to pray for his eternal peace and to thank him again for the sacrifice he made for my freedom. Just an miniscule attempt on my part to keep my persona promise to all the killed and wounded warriors to never forget.
I have met Jon Centanni, Rick's dad, a man of incredible strength and courage. A grieving father who joined the rest of us the day the 4th LAR returned home, a day I can only imagine must have been excruciatingly painful for him. He still wanted to see his son's brothers home, even if his beloved Rick was not going to be on that white bus. I seriously doubt I would have had such strength of character.
It may be a reality that the true meaning of Memorial Day has been lost from the consciousness of many Americans, but it still remains vivid among the millions of Service men and women deployed across the world and most certainly in the hearts and minds of the millions of families living everyday with the understanding and the fear for their loved ones in uniform.
And what can be said about the Gold Star families. They have earned and most definitely deserve the appreciation for the price they paid for the freedoms American enjoy everyday. They carry the emotional burden of pain and void that all Americans should attempt to understand and honor.
So on this Memorial Day weekend, while we enjoy the time off from work, while we enjoy the beer and the food, please pause in remembrance of why we are free to do so.
Reach out to a Military family in your neighborhood; search memorial web sites for the over 5,000 fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan and leave a message of condolences; pay a visit to a National Cemetery. Or even hold a minute of prayer as you are enjoying your family's company.
What it comes down to is to show that we really care for the trials and tribulations these families are enduring, to show our appreciation.
We are the Nation we are thanks to those who have stepped up and endure the horrors of combat across this globe. America owes a debt of gratitude to men like Rick Centanni that we will never be able to repay, so the least we can do is to remember their sacrifices. Never Forget!
Just my thoughts!
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