Thinking back through the years, I recall living at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1991 for two months.  We had flown there from Bad Kissingen , Germany. I was there because we were trying to find out what was wrong with our four year old son. Our lives were forever changed, however we have come a long way since then. In later years, I recall how our media vilified Walter Reed after veterans started coming home and we did not have enough facilities to care for them. I thought that the medical staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was excellent. At the time we were there, we were not at war and there was not a lot of strain on US military medical resources. It happened during every war…. not enough supplies… not enough life boats… not enough of anything and certainly not enough medical care to treat those coming home. Imagine what it was like during WW2 when those lucky enough to come home, thousands upon thousands needing care when they reached our shores again? Imagine those same young men who joined the military to fight a war on two fronts, the European Theatre and the Pacific Theatre ? Many joined because they were hungry and so were their families. They were children of the Great Depression and they never turned back once they left. I have read diaries of Westbrook soldiers who went to Okinawa and know of several Westbrook families who sustained great loss, one family had six sons who served during WW2. Another family had four sons, and two died in Europe. One ordinary man flew 33 missions and came back to work at SD Warren. They just did what was expected of them and they returned men. So when we get upset because our soldiers do not have the best of everything, remember the soldiers before them, in every war. The ultimate sacrifice was paid by many a young man and woman. I know a woman who was a nurse in Vietnam and was part of a surgical team on the aircraft as they brought home young men from Vietnam, and she saw many who did not make the flight. She flew back and forth picking up the wounded and caring for them.  This woman served a very long time and lost 2 husbands who were both pilots. Imagine such a loss… and I will always remember what my friend Phil, who passed away a year ago, once told me. He was a veteran of WW2 and his diary told of his worry and uncertainty of his journey across the Pacific, not knowing his destiny would be Okinawa. He was a born historian and not surprisingly his father also kept a journal of his experiences during WW1 in France. Phil told me that there could not be an Independence Day without a Memorial Day. We cannot celebrate our freedom without the day of rememberance.