By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

I have a photograph of my father in my living room. It is old, a tiny bit faded, and brown, rather than the expected black and white.

In the picture, my father is posing in his naval uniform soon after the completion of his boot camp. He is a young, vigorous, cocky, grinning 17-year-old. Like many young men during World War II, he left school, family, and farm to go do his bit for freedom and for his country. I don't remember my dad like he was in the faded photo. When he died four years ago, he left a legacy of two sons, four grandchildren, and, at present, four great-grandchildren.

Unlike the untold thousands of young men of his day, he did not die in the war and remain “forever young,” his last image a frozen youth in a photograph. I have many other photographs, many picturing him as a grandfather, wrinkled and gray. On this upcoming Memorial Day weekend, I will fly the flag and pay honor to him and to all who have served and died in America's many wars.

On Monday, I will make a short trip to the City Hall Plaza in Peachtree City and participate in a special ceremony honoring those who have, by their lives and their deaths, purchased freedom for my children and grandchildren. The celebration begins early, at 7:45 a.m., and will feature a four-man drum and bagpipe team, a demonstration by a former member of the United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Team, a display of military anti-armor equipment, and special essays presented by local students.

A special guest will be retired General Raymond G. Davis, USMC, a genuine American hero. A Georgia native and graduate of Georgia Tech, Davis was commissioned a second lieutenant after completing the ROTC program at Tech. General Davis earned the nation's highest award for valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, during the Korean War and the Navy Cross during World War II. One of the most highly decorated Marine Corps veterans alive today, General Davis, served in Vietnam as well.

During WW II, he saw action in such places as Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu. During the battles in Peleliu, all of Davis' platoon leaders had been either killed or wounded. When Davis himself was wounded, he refused medical evacuation and led the attack against the entrenched Japanese forces at Coral Ridge. For these actions, he received the Purple Heart and the Navy Cross.

In Korea, Davis led his battalion in the rescue of a Marine company that had come under attack while defending the Toktong Pass. His actions saved the rifle company from total annihilation and enabled two Marine regiments to escape destruction. For actions “above and beyond the call of duty,” he received the Medal of Honor.

As a major general in Vietnam, Davis was successful in implementing aggressive high mobility methods of combat, in place of the former defensive posture, for which he received the Distinguished Service Cross. In 1971, Gen. Davis received his fourth star and was appointed to serve as the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.

Still ramrod straight and “all-Marine” at age 85, Gen. Davis continues to be involved at high levels of service to the country for which he went thrice to war. It will be my great honor to meet him. Like my father, he survived his experiences and lived to appear in many photographs.

I doubt that the paths of my father and Gen. Davis ever crossed, but like millions of other men and women, they shared the common belief that freedom, home and family were worth fighting for. Like others, they believed that some things were even worth dying for.

On Memorial Day, we don't gather in hallowed or prestigious places to pay honor to people like my father or even to people like Gen. Davis. We gather together because only the living can pay homage to the dead.

Independence Day celebrates our national birthday. Veteran's Day honors all veterans who have ever served. But Memorial Day is different. It is a day that we remember that the reason we can go to the lake, or to the pool, or to the backyard barbecue, is due largely to those who, unlike the general and my father, will be locked forever in those old faded photographs portraying them as men who never aged. Memorial Day is set aside to remember the dead.

In their memory, we salute the flag. In their honor, we beat the drums and sound the bagpipes. In deference to them, we fly flags, pray prayers, and have parades. It is a day that we remember that the joy of the nation over the victories won in wars and the elation felt at the soldier's return home at the end of those wars was not shared by all.

We remember the mothers who wept, the fathers who sobbed, the wives and the children who didn't laugh or smile gain for months, if not years. We remember the futures lost and the dreams shattered. We remember the men and women frozen in their youth in old photographs. And we pray that it may never happen again. We pray that the countless lives sacrificed will not be in vain and that we will be worthy of their deaths.

Monday is a time to bring your children and grandchildren to a place of remembrance and a place of reflection. You are invited to join with me and hundreds of others Monday in Peachtree City as Gen. Raymond Davis leads the community in honoring those men and women in the faded photographs.

[Father David Epps (USMC 1970-73) is rector of Christ the King Church. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ChristTheKingCEC.com.]

Back to Opinion Home Page | Back to the top of the page