As I meditated on Armed Forces Day, my mind went back to 1945 after the Okinawa campaign.

The bodies of the dead could not be sent home immediately and were placed in a Military Cemetery there.

With others in my unit, I visited that cemetery. This had been my only combat experience at that time, but many of my friends had been with the First Marines since Guadalcanal. They were battle-weary, hardened, and scarred. Most of them shed tears over the graves of their fallen comrades.

My thoughts then and now are the same; You don't have to die to be a hero!

A Salute to Our Living Heroes

What does it take to make a hero?

Must he fight the enemy hand to hand?

No! He first becomes a hero

When he determines to take a stand!

He may not have knocked out a pill box,

Nor charged up 'San Juan Hill',

But he did the job assigned him;

He had duties to fulfill.

Inside each man or woman

Who wears a uniform,

There resides a national hero;

The potential is the norm.

All heroes don't die in battle,

Some stand at their graves and cry.

They too, are willing; they do their job!

A hero doesn't always die!

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