Thank you, LoneWolf for your service and respectful and appropriate response to my post. While re-reading my post, I see that it reads as though I am confusing Veterans Day with Memorial Day. For that, I apologize. I do know the difference, and did not intend to minimize the greater objective of Memorial Day, for it is a day for remembering those killed. My intention was to express gratitude to their families and comrades who, in a particular way, grieve that loss more than I am capable of understanding or experiencing myself.

Your response, rooted in the desire to memorialize those very people, rather than allow me to recognize your service only serves to demonstrate all the more the spirit of your admirable sense of duty and regard for others who have been killed while, in a very real sense, standing directly beside you in service. You, my friend, are equally willing to make that same sacrifice. I cannot help but be moved by that.

So yes, I will continue to strive to recognize your service and unique sense of loss on this day in a similar way I do for the immediate families and friends of another's funeral. Likewise, I will not be surprised when you deflect that, saying, "It's not me, it's they."

God Bless them all.
.