Memorial Day is distinguished from Veteran’s Day. We honor all veterans, living and dead. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for the ultimate sacrifice of one’s life. From what I have read, there have been over 1.1 million Americans who have died during wartime. Some from combat and others from disease.
My 4th-great-grandfather, Shadrack Whitt died at Valley Forge from disease (mostly likely smallpox). He was buried in a mass grave in May of 1778. He left behind a widow with two small boys, one was William Whitt, my 3rd-great-grandfather. Who knows the great sacrifice my long-ago grandmother and her sons endured after his death?
There was a great sacrifice of those who died in war. We honor them. There is also a continual sacrifice of the families that remain. The warriors fought and died. Their families weep and continue to grieve.
I married into the Stanley family in 1977. Robert Houston and Annie Sue Stanley blessed me with their daughter Jennie as my forever wife. They warmly embraced me as their son. This family was a Gold Star Family. By marriage covenant and love, I joined their ranks.
Jennie’s brother, Joe Harry Stanley is honored on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC on Panel 38W, Line 30 on the Wall. He was only 21 years old when he was killed in action. He died in Quang Nam Province on November 21, 1968. He is buried in Aurora Cemetery. Sergeant Joe Harry Stanley served with the 198th Aviation Section as helicopter crewman.
I never met Joe, he was killed approximately five years before Jennie and I met. So, his passing was not old history like my ancestor Shadrack. It was still a fresh grief on the family. They regrouped and lived life again as God gave them strength. But his death and absence still lingered in the air and on their hearts. Some 58 years later, it is still there.
The ultimate sacrifice of our fallen heroes is remembered on Memorial Day. There is a sacrifice that is not always mentioned. It is the sacrifice of the families. I could hear the sadness in my wife’s voice when she talked about Joe. The other siblings as well, spoke his name with honor but the honor was framed with a lingering, broken heart.
I heard wonderful stories about Joe. He was a tall handsome young man. He was smart with a great sense of humor. I only wished I could have met him. I never had the opportunity. LBJ’s war closed the book on a life I only heard stories about.
My father-in-law and mother-in-law went to their graves with fresh tears and sad hearts over a son who barely made it into his twenties. In the Autumn season of 1968, they were dreaming of soon seeing Joe walk down the steps of a plane, instead they received a flag-draped casket with an honor guard. They never saw him finish college, marry a young bride, or look through a hospital nursery window of his first child. The sacrifice was not just one day on a battlefield, but it continues with those who remain.
Please pray for the Gold Star Families. They had a son or daughter, brother or sister, or husband or wife who paid a high price for our liberty and freedom. But the living members of those families still pay a sacrifice of an empty space every day. A tear still rolls down their cheeks. A constant void in their hearts for one they wish to hold again.
We expect the sadness to end when we see them again. We have a promise from God, that one day he will wipe the tears from our eyes. “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. / For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:13-14 NKJV).
May the blessing of comfort and peace rest on all those who carry the burden of grief and the weight of sacrifice.
In Loving Memory of Sgt. Joe Harry Stanley. You left earth on a helicopter and then took flight to Heaven. One day soon, we shall meet.
Yours on the Journey,
Harry L. Whitt
Pathway Journey 