~ by Father Ron Camarda

I found this definition when I Googled: ‘Memorial Day definition’

Memorial Day is a legal holiday, formerly known as Decoration Day, proclaimed annually by the president to honor U.S. citizens who have died in war. Since 1950, by congressional request, the day is also set aside to pray for permanent peace.

Both religious services and patriotic parades mark the day’s celebrations. In the national official observance, a wreath is placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. One of the more moving observances is at the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania, where schoolchildren scatter flowers over the graves of unknown soldiers of the Civil War.

The association of poppies with fallen soldiers was popularized by the poet John McCrae, who wrote the lines: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row.” Flanders was the site of heavy fighting during World War I, and for many who wrote about it later, the poppy came to symbolize both the beauty of the landscape and the blood that was shed there. Poppies are sold by veterans’ organizations around the holiday.

The practice of decorating graves of war dead began before the close of the Civil War. However, an officially set day was established in 1868 when Gen. John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order naming May 30 as a day for “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” The day became known as Decoration Day, but as it was extended to include the dead of all wars, it took the name Memorial Day.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/memorial-day#ixzz1Nl3Tlrzd

So here we are 150 years after the beginning of the Civil War and we desperately try to make sense of war, which of course is, well, senseless. We continue to strew flowers on graves of those who died heroically.

On May 7, I preached at the Funeral Mass for PFC Jonathan Villanueva, USA who died in Afghanistan. It was just as tough as last year with PFC Philip Clark, USMC. Both were only 19. Last Memorial Day, Mark Woods submitted the following article for the Florida Times Union:

Submitted by Mark Woods on May 28, 2010 – 5:34am

It started with a green journal, the worn binding held together with heavy tape, the pages full of the names of more than 2,000 troops who ended up in front of Father Ron Camarda when he served as a Navy reservist chaplain in Iraq.

It became the subject of “The Best Christmas Ever,” a story that filled The Times-Union’s front page on Christmas Day 2005. And after the story got an overwhelming response from readers near and far, Father Ron kept saying we should write a book. And I kept saying that I had neither the time nor the talent.

Besides, it was his story, the story of the troops he saw take their last breath, shed their last tear. He should tell it.

And he did. He wrote and self-published “Tear in the Desert” (tearinthedesert.com) . That led to an appearance on a national cable television show last Memorial Day, which led to a director contacting him and doing a half-hour television show that will be replayed this Memorial Day (2:30-3 p.m. on EWTN), which led to what is now in the works.

A movie.

It still is a long way from appearing on a big screen anywhere. But director Christian Peschken, producer Joham Sturm and screenwriter Robert J. Ahola all are on board, hoping to turn the stories behind the names in the green journal into a full-length film.

“There’s something God is doing,” Father Ron said. “It’s beyond a book, beyond a movie.”

It has been more than five years since the Battle of Fallujah. And in many ways, Father Ron is still on the other side of the world, still trying to make sense of what is in that journal, especially the 81 names with crosses next to them.

When I talked to him this week, he was preparing to go to Jacksonville Naval Air Station for the return of Marine Cpl. Philip Clark’s remains. Today he will be in Gainesville for the memorial service for the 19-year-old who was killed in Afghanistan. And this Memorial Day, he will be at the Duval County Veterans Memorial Wall as 10 names are added.

“Why?” I asked.

Some would do everything possible to move on, to forget. He has done the opposite. He hangs on to it, not only connecting with family of troops who died in Fallujah but immersing himself in fresh grief.

Why? At first he didn’t have an answer. But as we talked I happened to mention the photo he chose for his Facebook icon. It’s of him standing in front of a stone wall with a message on it:

I HATE WAR

He explained that the photo was taken when he visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. And that is the ending of an FDR quote on a wall there, a quote about touring World War I battlefields in France.

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives … I hate war.

That’s it, Father Ron said.

That is why.

Beloved, I truly do hate war. Since Memorial Day is about strewing flowers on the graves of those who died defending our country and a day to pray for permanent peace; I thought I would conclude with some flowers strewn on this article.

Love, joy peace.

And let us truly remember this Memorial Day—Father Ron +

www.tearinthedesert.com

Father Ron Camarda is a retired Naval Chaplain and author of “Tear in the Desert,” a powerful book containing his memoirs of life and death at the Battle for Fallujah. Father Ron appears on EWTN and recently won the Silver Medal from the Military Writers Society of America.