Reflection and Remembrance

Monday marks Memorial Day, and hopefully everyone will take more than a moment to honor those who paid the ultimate price, as well as those who served and survived.

A good way to start, is to reflect on the oaths of office first adopted by the Continental Congress, which still stand with little modification 222 years later.

I still get chills when I read this, as it commits those who serve not to a president, let alone a king, but to the document which has ensured the survival of our republic, the Constitution:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Next, follow protocol, raise your flag to full height in the morning, slowly lower it to half staff until noon, and then raise it once again to full staff. After that, visit a national cemetery, and read the names on the headstones to yourself quietly out loud, and I guarantee you will sing a song of the marvelous melting pot called America.

Also take time during the day to compile your own Honor Role of those who have served and continue to serve. Here's mine:

Niel Hancock, Army 716th MP Battalion, Vietnam, July 1967-July 1968

Niel, who I counted as my closest Vietnam veteran friend, died May 11 of a sudden heart attack while on a motorcycle trip in Deming, N.M. I'll be at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas, on May 31 to pay my final respects.

He and I marked our service and in some truly memorable ways, including marching together in the "welcome home" parade that preceded the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982.

A decade later, Niel helped me run a 24-hour-a-day meeting for an entire week at a tent near The Wall for vets who still struggled with their invisible wounds of war, an event I consider a turning point in my life.

Neil, in his life, proved that vets can't be pigeonholed, and wrote 13 books, all of them delightful fantasies with a truly spiritual basis.

Instead of writing about his combat experiences directly -- including the 1968 New Year's Tet offensive -- Niel handled it in fiction with a marvelous mix of animals and humanoids.

You can learn more about Niel, his life and his books at his website.

Marine Maj. Cornelius Ram, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Vietnam, 1971

I had the pleasure to serve as Corky's radio operator at Camp Pendleton in 1964, and considered him the best company commander in the Marine Corps.

Corky, executive officer of 2/5 in January, 1971, died while attempting to rescue wounded Marines, an exemplar of the Marine motto Semper Fidelis.

Lewis B. Puller, Jr.

Lew lost both legs as the result of the explosion of a landmine in Vietnam in October 1968 and detailed his post-combat physical, spiritual and emotional struggles in his 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography "Fortunate Son."

I met Lew at the July 4, 1987, Home Box Office "Welcome Home" concert July 4, 1987, at the now defunct Capitol Center, where John Fogerty gave his first live performance of the song "Fortunate Son" since the breakup of Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1972.

On that 4th of July in 1987, the overflow crowd of veterans their families all felt like fortunate sons, and Lew said the title of his autobiography reflected that concert and the fact that he was the son of famed Lt. Gen. Chesty Puller.

I had lunch in the Pentagon at least once a week with Lew from 1987 until he committed suicide in 1994. Lew and I also made annual trips to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where he laid a single red rose at the apex of The Wall -- an act, like many things Lew did, that touched me with grace.

Comrades

I was privileged to serve in the comm platoon of three Marine infantry units, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment; and in Vietnam, 2nd Battalion, Ninth Marines; and 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, 1963-1967, and consider this the key experience of my life.

The passage of time has dimmed memories of those years, but I still remember comrades who will always remain young, including Rex Dieterle, Miles Gullingsruud, Larry Leal, Joel Engebretsen, Bill Schwartz, Tom Wilmot and our platoon sergeant, Herbierto Gonzalez.

Family

Last, but definitely not least, my father, Walter Brewin, who served in the Army Air Corps in the Philippines and Okinawa in World War II and my father-in-law, William Suess, a tin can sailor in both the Atlantic and the Pacific in The Big One.

Do you have an Honor Roll of your own? Send it this way, and we'll post it.