Memorial Day Holiday, digging up memories. ~ 2 comments.
The Memorial Day holiday is upon us, and affects some folks more than others. I can see boats and RVs missing from the neighborhood, and they are probably up in the high country, enjoying the last weekend in the mountains, which are full of Colorado folk rather than flatlanders from all over the country. But for me, there is no change. I still wake up early, eat when I'm hungry, sleep when I'm tired, and try to stay off the roads if at all possible.
So instead of attending a party or a barbecue, I just take the time to remember the young men.... And yes, it's mostly young men who gave their lives in the often mindless wars that each generation of Americans seems to face. My generation, of course, had to deal with Vietnam for better or for worse. And it seems to me that if we learned anything from that debacle, it would be: if you let politicians run a war... You're doomed.
I was fortunate enough to be stationed at Yokota Air Force Base in Japan, where I was far from danger and, for the most part, only had to deal with the aftermath of the battles. C141s loaded with shot-up armored personnel carriers being sent for repairs, pallet loads of bombs, and other explosives of various kinds heading for the front, and plane loads of bedraggled soldiers looking forward to their R&R in Tokyo.
I considered myself lucky to be far removed from anything resembling a war until the C141s landed with their usual load of 90 aluminum coffins. The shipping manifest referred to them as "human remains," abbreviated as HRs. There were no flag-draped coffins in the C141s; there was no President of the United States standing outside the plane saluting their sacrifice; there was only me and five other crewmembers loading and unloading airplanes as quickly as possible.
But I knew in those coffins were guys 19 or 20 years old, just like me, and through no fault of their own, they were killed fighting for something in a land far, far away, that they probably didn't even understand, but instead of running away to Canada, they did their duty and paid for it with their lives..... So on Memorial Day, I think of unloading plane loads of coffins and how much like me those young men once were, and knowing "there but for the grace of God go I."
Theboondork
Petrified Forest National Park.
Petrified Forest.
A fellow tourist. I find it hard to believe that a big box covering most of your radiator doesn't limit the airflow to your engine. And worse yet, the transmission fluid cooler is in the same airflow, so it seems to me that carrying whatever's in that big box around is not worth the risk to your engine and transmission.