I wrote the following for this site in 2016–I don’t think I can write it any better now, so here it is again:
On November 20, 1943, a combined US Navy and Marine assault was launched on a small Pacific atoll called Tarawa. My uncle, a Marine sergeant, was part of a landing force assigned to attack via the lagoon of the main island, Betio. As is invariably the case, not everything went according to plan. The tide was shallower than expected, and the landing craft could not ferry the men all the way to shore–they had to get out and wade into a heavy crossfire to set up their beach head. Very few men in the first two waves made it to the beach. My uncle was one of them; unfortunately, he was not one who then survived the next three days of intense combat. He was one of over 6,000 American and Japanese soldiers, sailors, and marines to lose their lives on Betio, a little island perhaps 4km long and 1km at its widest point. He was buried on that island in a temporary grave after the battle. When the war was over, however, that grave could not be found–my grandmother was not able to bury her son. Instead, his name is one of the many inscribed on the monument at the Punchbowl in Honolulu, HI.
Why do I relate this story? It is because Memorial Day is about Americans remembering their servicemen who gave their lives on behalf of the rest of us…it is about remembering people like my uncle. Invariably, people will thank me for my 26 years in the Air Force, and I will always reply with a sincere “thank you” in return, but Memorial Day is not about me. If you have a war memorial or national cemetery in your town, it is a good time to visit it and to consider what our lives might be like if those men and women weren’t willing to make the sacrifices they made. If you have a flag pole in your yard, then on Monday your flag should be at half mast until noon, then raised fully.
Most of all, do spend time with your family. Go to the ballpark. Enjoy the sun and the hot dogs. That is our way of life, and what those servicemen and servicewomen laid down their lives to protect. The best way to honor them is to live that life.
Fan Interference 
Though my family has a number of veterans, we have been fortunate enough that we haven’t lost anyone in service. I would say generally, most of our contributions have been more ignoble than your grandfather’s service too.
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There is no ignoble military service. In the Air Force pilots are the stars of the show…but good luck flying an airplane without ground crew, and good luck being ground crew and maintaining that airplane if the logistics folks don’t get you the necessary parts for it, etc.
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Let’s just say, they weren’t officers or gentlemen.
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April – May of 1945 my future dad was a Marine Sargent on Okinawa. He was assigned to a ,mission to retrieve supplies and return them to the front lines. He wasn’t able to go, I’m guessing, because he had the trots. His best friend and tent mate volunteered to go in his place. The mission to the rear area was ambushed by the Japanese and everyone was killed. I was born in 1954. Every family get together, including a week ago Sunday, I look around and realize that over half the people in the room including myself would never have been born had it not been for Terry Mcauliffe of Iowa.
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and the trots!
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About 100,000 human beings died on Okinawa. 10s of thousands of those bodies went unburied for days and weeks. I have read that the unburied human body yields a sickening sweet smell. Until our mom spilled the beans about Terry Mcauliffe after our dads death in 2003 I couldn’t understand my dad’s taste for un sweetened grapefruit. Es ist nicht “ignoble”.
Audie Murphy all by himself.
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Ever see the movie “Hacksaw Ridge?” Very scary/realistic portrayal of part of the Okinawa campaign without being gratuitously gory.
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Yes. I watched it with my family on April 1st, 2020 -the 75th anniversary of the Okinawa landing.
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