Scroll down for a great article that was from a local paper in my hometown. The following photographs were taken at Camp Nelson National Cemetery south of Lexington, Kentucky yesterday.

 

This morning I attended a ceremony at the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Frankfort and it was very moving. Grown men who served in the war have dwindled in numbers rapidly. Men who were reduced to tears as the names were read, kneeling to pray, placing a flower upon the sundial that coordinated with the anniversary of the death of their comrade. I'd like to venture to the national World War II memorial next year to honor my grandfather who served in the war and received a Purple Heart.

 

 

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1. More than 1,800 veterans die every day in the United States.

 

2. Many Americans still have yet to realize the sacrifice many of these men and women gave for their country.

 

3. Unknown grave.

 

4.

 

5. There are thousands of graves.

 

6.

 

7. These graves are from the past two months.

 

8.

 

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A note on his grave

Letter placed on tombstone brings closure to soldier, sister

By Lee Ward, The Independent, May 26, 2008

 

ASHLAND — The prayers of Diana White received a bittersweet answer last week.

 

A Cincinnati resident and Westwood native whose brother, Joe Robinson, was killed in the Vietnam War, White said she prayed daily for 40 years she could have the chance to talk to someone who was with her brother when he died.

 

“I went to decorate the graves (last week) and found this note in a Ziploc bag,” she said. The note was left on her brother’s grave on March 30, from a soldier who served with her brother.

 

Patrick Roxberry of Bath, Pa., was haunted by the memory of Joseph Bruce Robinson.

 

“He has been on my mind every day since he died,” said Roxberry, 60, who is now a member of Veterans for Peace.

 

“I wanted to go down and visit his grave for a long time, but I felt like I might not be able to handle it, so I put it off,” he said. “As I got older, I thought I’d better do it, to pay my respects to him.”

 

Roxberry said all he knew about Robinson was that he was from the Ashland area, so he called the Boyd County Public Library and learned he was buried at Rose Hill Burial Park.

 

“I only knew him for two months but in the situation, you develop very close relationships,” he said.

 

During his visit to Ashland, he also went to Fairview High School, where Robinson graduated. Those who work there were able to find one of his report cards from elementary school and photographs of Robinson for Roxberry to keep.

 

During the visit to his grave, Roxberry was able to see a newspaper clipping and learned that Robinson had a sister, so he decided to leave the plastic-wrapped note on the grave in hopes of getting in contact with White.

 

It was May 21 when White called Roxberry.

 

“This just really shook me up,” White said, recalling parts of her conversation with Roxberry. “He asked me if Joe was down there (in the cemetery) by himself and I told him no, he’s buried in the bell tower beside his grandmother.”

 

Robinson was killed Feb. 8, 1968, when White was a senior at Fairview.

 

“My brother was one of the first casualties of the Vietnam War from the area,” she said. “There wasn’t a funeral home large enough to accommodate the crowd, so they closed school that day and had the service in the auditorium and there were people lined up outside who wanted to be there.”

 

White said talking to Roxberry confirmed what she and her family were told by the government, that Robinson awoke when his unit was attacked by the Viet Cong and immediately retaliated. Robinson was awarded 10 medals of honor.

 

“They said he saved a lot of lives,” she said.

 

For Roxberry, meeting White was a positive experience.

 

“You never know how they’re going to take it,” he said of talking to survivors and stirring up memories. “I was reluctant to call her, so I left the note on the grave. I’m glad I did. I’d like to talk to his sister some more.”

We visit the memorials year after year, place flowers on the graves, mourn the dead and commiserate with the maimed, listen to the speeches and take part in the parades and the marches and demonstrations demanding peace. The wars go on and probably will so long as humanity exists, just as they have since prehistoric times.

 

One of the attributes that distinguish people from forest animals is the ability to organize the disputes over feeding and breeding territory, extending sources of contention to abstractions like religion and expanding conflict beyond one-on-one fights and family or tribal brawls to massive global wars that inflict all-consuming collateral damage reaching far beyond the sometimes-trivial incidents that triggered them and destroying the lives of people who had no stake in the original disputes.

 

The propensity toward conflict seems to be an ancient hereditary trait among humans, manifesting itself more aggressively in some than in others but present at some level in all of us. I think wars won't ever cease so long as people are around to conduct them. Dreaming of world peace is a pleasant but futile fantasy, and we'd be better occupied if each individual were to direct his/her efforts toward living in harmony with the creation that surrounds us.

Stunning.