Remember and honor sacrifices of our troops

Because I Said So column for The Commercial Appeal

July 7, 2011

After watching an old black-and-white movie on television one night last week, I resisted flipping through the other hundreds of stations and instead watched an old Bob Hope “Command Performance” from the 1940s.

We’ve all seen the film footage of the players on stage as they broadcast over the Armed Forces Radio Network. The scene is one of Hope and a parade of stars holding scripts before oversize microphones and in front of a lucky group of GIs dressed in olive drab, many holding rifles as if just having marched in from the front. The venue is always standing room only.

I was out of town last week, and when Hope introduced Judy Garland to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” I was reminded of my 5-year-old daughter singing that song in her preschool’s end-of-the-year program a couple of months ago. She continues to sing it at random times these days, and it made me miss her and look forward to seeing her in a few days’ time.

In the spirit of Hope’s show, I thought of the men who had watched and listened in remote outposts, and how they must have missed their own children, how painfully they must have missed their families.

I was home from my trip in time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. I walked in the front door to hugs from my kids after my safe travels that posed little or no danger other than the possibility of a flat tire or hot coffee spill … (read more)

But many didn’t return home, and their travels, their very jobs, are so much more dangerous that it defies comprehension for most of us who will never experience war or stare down that sort of frightening and unknown road.